Iola Administrator Carl Slaugh brought ambulance merger discussions to a head Monday night by laying out three options.
— Combine Iola fire and emergency medical services, run by the city;
— Combine Iola fire and EMS, run by the county;
— Keep Iola fire a city function and have the county run combined EMS.
What will occur now is Slaugh and County Counselor Alan Weber will fit each of those scenarios into a basic contract to be considered, and possibly approved, by Iola council members and county commissioners on June 3.
A fourth option, mentioned only in passing, would be to do nothing. If that occurred, an agreement between city and county would expire in about 2½ years, which would trigger an end to an $80,000 subsidy the county provides the city and could result in county ambulances being dispatched to answer calls in Iola.
“We have the responsibility to provide ambulance service for all of the county,” including Iola, Commission Chairman Dick Works said.
He also noted that if Iola fire and EMS were separated, taxpayers in Iola theoretically would save 6 mills on property tax bills, those in the county 3 mills.
Works said the savings would come from reduced overtime by the city of about $100,000 — the equivalent of 3 mills in Iola — and the county’s savings of the $80,000 subsidy it pays Iola plus about $300,000 in revenue now collected from runs by city ambulances, another 3 mills countywide.
IN THE RUN-UP to Monday night’s conclusion, Ryan Sell, a firefighter/paramedic representing the city’s interests, and Terry Call, who has does billing for ambulance service for years, distributed information showing savings in expenses that could come from a combined force. The numbers were for 36-, 33- and 30-person departments.
Their research showed with 30 personnel, savings would be nearly $336,000, by removing six people from payrolls. For 33, savings would be $236,672, in a combination of less compensation and decreased overtime; for 36 personnel, compensation would remain constant but by combining services $55,000 could be saved in overtime costs.
The conclusions didn’t take into consideration savings that might be realized in commodities and equipment, although they didn’t think that part of the equation would be significant.
Before deciding to hand contract organization to Slaugh and Weber, Joel Wicoff, Iola mayor, said he thought having the two services, fire and EMS, together provided for efficiency and that no one in Iola he asked favored Iola not having a role in EMS.
“I don’t think splitting them up is the way to go,” he said.
Works countered that “911 has worked well” since the county took full control and that city employees were assimilated without problems, namely in protecting former city employees’ benefits.
