Iola Council members said they intend to submit a bid in order to continue providing countywide ambulance service beyond this year.
The consensus was quickly reached at the Council’s meeting Monday, the first since Iola received notice that the county would not renew the city-county EMS contract, which expires Dec. 31.
In its notice, the county said it would put the countywide EMS up for bid, inviting the city to submit a proposal.
Iola City Administrator Matt Rehder said he expected a formal request for proposal to be delivered sometime this week, and will be reviewed by city staff and distributed in short order to Council members to decide whether they need to schedule a special meeting to develop a bid proposal. The specifics will be discussed in a private session.
“Tonight’s discussion isn’t about numbers,” Mayor Jon Wells said, “but whether we want to bid that service.”
He received the answer emphatically, with all eight Council members in favor of pursuing a new deal.
Monday’s discussion came in front of more than a dozen Iola firefighters, who man ambulances across the county as part of the existing contract.
The county’s non-renewal letter was delivered last week after exclusive negotiations between the city and county ended in April without a new agreement. The county had until June 30 to notify the city whether it intended to extend the contract.
“I would say I’m disappointed with the county and their notice,” Wells said. “I wholeheartedly think we need to bid this.”
Wells praised the firefighters, calling them the best crew in southeast Kansas, and perhaps the state.
“You all have done a phenomenal job,” Wells told the firefighters. “I apologize on our behalf. I can’t apologize for the county, to put this insecurity in front of you. We’re talking about your lives, your livelihoods. I wish this would have gone in a different way.”
Councilman Carl Slaugh, too, encouraged the city to pursue a new deal. “I think we can turn this into our advantage.”
The advantage in continuing the Iola Fire Department-manned countywide EMS program is that it removes duplicated services, and saves on taxes, he explained.
“We need to point out the black and white of the cost issues,” Slaugh said. “It requires a certain number of personnel to support fire operations within the city and it requires a certain number of people to support emergency medical services. It makes a lot of sense to still keep the services combined.”
Councilman Steve French, meanwhile, urged the city to have its legal team look into the existing contract to determine whether the county’s termination would allow Iola to once again operate its own ambulance service — perhaps a system similar to how EMS operated before the current pact went into effect in 2014.
“The biggest challenge with this whole process is the uncertainty to all employees,” Slaugh said, noting the city will likely have 30 to 45 days to prepare a bid, and then not knowing until the county acts how its Fire Department will be affected.
