Allen County commissioners said they had “a very positive meeting” with Iola leaders regarding ambulance service negotiations Wednesday morning.
Afterwards, Iola officials announced the City Council was going to gather for a special meeting of its own Wednesday evening to discuss the matter.
In the morning, the county met with Mayor Steve French, EMS Director Michael Burnett and Iola Fire Chief Corey Isbell. Also attending were Terry Call, planning and zoning director who formerly handled EMS billing for the county, and Jerry Hathaway, an attorney representing the county in the matter.
The county and city are attempting to resolve differences over ambulance services, part of a decades-long partnership that nearly ended multiple times.
In late-2021, the county nearly signed a contract with a private EMS provider, American Medical Response (AMR), but agreed to a new contract with Iola in the 11th hour.
In January, city leaders voted to terminate the contract effective Aug. 1, citing increased costs and difficulty attracting qualified staff. The hope was to force the county back to the negotiating table.
Instead, commissioners again pursued a contract with AMR. When the terms of the contract were released, it did not include out-of-county medical transfers, which prompted concerns from the public and health officials. The county also would lose as much as $800,000 in revenue each year from insurance reimbursements for EMS services. Under the contract with AMR, that revenue would be funneled its way.
Commissioners then re-started talks with the city.
After Wednesday morning’s meeting, which was conducted entirely in executive session and lasted one hour and 20 minutes, Chairman David Lee said, “I look forward to good things to come from this meeting.”
