Dropping its ambulance service and relying on a volunteer fire department would be “disastrous” for Iola, the city’s ambulance service director said.
Ron Conaway, who has headed the ambulance service since the city broke away from the county in 2008, spoke at Monday’s Iola City Council meeting.
He was invited by City Administrator Carl Slaugh after Councilman Steve French suggested the city look at a number of hypothetical situations regarding its EMS and fire departments.
The discussion comes while a joint city-county task force studies the city’s and county’s ambulance services. The nine-member committee may make a non-binding recommendation to alter either of the existing services.
With the way the department is structured, and because the city is licensed for its EMS service through the state, any decisions to change the Iola departments would be made by the city council, Conaway said.
The worst-case scenario, Conaway said, would be for the city to decide to drop its ambulance service and go to a volunteer fire department.
“With the level of … protection we have now, it would be a step backward,” Conaway said, particularly for Iola’s industries.
Conaway said the EMS and fire departments, with 15 full-time employees, plus Fire Chief Donald Leapheart, is “staffed adequately; certainly not over-staffed.”
He also spoke about questions of the city’s quality of service voiced by county commissioners.
“If you have any doubt in your mind, contact the people we bring our patients to, the folks at the hospital,” Conaway said. Hospitals may be the city’s biggest ambulance advocates.
“We’ve been accused of running EMS to support our fire department,” Conaway continued. “EMS certainly does help our fire department financially, because we generate revenue-making EMS runs, but it certainly isn’t the reason for the fire department’s existence.”
Conaway and Leapheart also pointed to other duties ambulance personnel can handle aside from fire protection, such as providing rescue services for most of the county and containing hazardous material spills.
French said Monday’s discussion was necessary to ensure Iolans are aware of the options facing the city.
French has supported a consolidated service, with the city continuing to staff ambulances from the fire department, noting the cost savings available.
Replacing the paid fire department with a volunteer force would require close to 50 volunteers, French said, or the city could be at risk of a higher Insurance Service Office (ISO) rating, which looks at such things as fire protection when establishing property insurance rates.
