Discussion for EMS on firm ground

Discussions for merger of Iola and Allen County ambulance services seem on firmer ground than ever before.
At the conclusion of almost two hours of sub-committee discussions Monday evening, negotiators within the two services — Iola’s Ryan Sell and the county’s Terry Call — were instructed to flesh out a plan to have ambulance service under one roof.
The question is whose roof it will be. Whether the city or county will be the contracted party is yet to be decided. In either case fire protection will be a part of the mix.
Sell and Call will put cost figures to the plan, with a goal of a 30-person force.
Initially, mention was made of a 36-person fire/EMS department, which will be in place if accord is reached on a contract for either county or city to be the provider. Iola fire/EMS has 18 employees, including three hired under a federally funded Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant, which eventually will expire. County ambulance also has 18 full-time employees.
County Commissioner Tom Williams said several times there was no intention for any current employee to be eliminated, with the smaller number anticipated through attrition.
Williams initially was prepared to discuss a plan to have 30 people man ambulances — in Iola, Humboldt and Moran — and answer fire calls at Iola, but deferred as discussion rambled through philosophies and settled on the plan hashed out by employees of the two services.
Specifics were not discussed, though generally it keeps in place Iola’s fire department structure and staffs ambulances at type I level — a paramedic on each run — in the three cities.
As with any service, ambulance service costs are found mainly in personnel — estimates ranged from 70 to 80 percent — and would be reduced if fewer employees, 33 or 30, were the outcome.
Michael Burnett, county ambulance director, opined that if no money were saved with a merger, perhaps “we should stay with the status quo.”
It was Iola Mayor Joel Wicoff who moved discussion off dead center.
“Let’s push forward with 30 (employees) and have a proposal by next week,” he said.
The county’s three commissioners and the full city governing body, eight council members and mayor, will meet Monday evening at the Dr. John Sills Bass Community Building.
Then, Sell and Call will lay out the plan with proposed budget.

WILLIAMS prefers whatever evolves to have a public safety board, similar to the Allen County Hospital trustees, in a management position.
With what most agreed should be a workable plan coming, conversations Monday likely will center on ultimate authority.
If the county takes the reins — of Iola fire and a merged ambulance service — the expectation is that a part of any agreement will be protection of benefits accrued by city employees, such as was done when 911 dispatch was taken over by the county and city employees transferred.
EMS personnel would be cross-trained to lend assistance in firefighting, not in the role of a full-fledged firefighter, but at least in support.
Some personnel adjustments naturally will occur, said Don Becker, a city councilman.
He recalled business mergers with which he was familiar and noted that management numbers naturally are less for one group after a merger than before.
While cost-saving is a factor, all agreed providing citizens with upscale service was the goal.
“In no way, shape or form do we want to reduce service,” Williams said.
Sell, in a pragmatic view, noted “we’re all aware of history” of Iola and Allen County’s disagreements over ambulance service and Iola starting its own in 2008, and “our mission is to work together for a merger. We can work out the details.”
That’s the court the ball is bouncing in today.

ONCE AN equitable plan draws agreement, attorneys for the two governing bodies will develop a contract, which would be binding, according to County Counselor Alan Weber on future councils and commissions for its duration, except for an escape clause either could trigger.
For continuity’s sake, the contract likely would roll — an additional year would be added each year to maintain it at three, four or however many years.
Fire Chief Don Leapheart pointed out the necessity of a longer term contract to give employees job security.