BUCYRUS — Elected and safety officials from throughout Crawford County met this week to discuss the possibility of a countywide emergency medical service in Crawford County.
The meeting was moderated by Phil Hoover, a Bucyrus Township resident. Hoover spent 12 years as the chief of the Bucyrus Township Volunteer Fire Department, then spent nine months with the Bucyrus Fire Department and ended his career by retiring after 30 years with the Columbus Fire Department.
Hoover has been a volunteer consultant for the county while researching the possibility of the countywide service.
He said there is misinformation circulating and one goal of the meetings is to have all possible participating entities on the same page.
“The basic purpose of these meetings is to get everyone together and hopefully start a discussion,” Hoover said.
Hoover said there were rumors of the county wanting to take over emergency medical services.
“That’s not the case,” he said.
The county, however, did come around to discussing the possibility after the most recent bids for an ambulance contract for the Central Joint Ambulance District were submitted in June 2018.
Portsmouth Emergency Ambulance Service, the current ambulance provider for the district, came in at $673,800 and Life Support Team EMS made a bid of $11 million.
Hoover said the quality of the service received from Portsmouth EAS is not in question, but the bid amount by Life Support Team, the previous ambulance provider for the district, forced the county to at least entertain the idea of its own service.
Crawford County Commissioner Doug Weisenauer said some township trustees came to the commissioners asking if the county could provide assistance when the bids came in and Weisenauer said it would be impossible because the county did not have an EMS fund as individual municipalities made decisions on ambulance services either separately or as part of the CJAD. Weisenauer said he took that as a sign to start investigating other counties to see if a conversation could form some ideas.
Now the goal is to have the discussion on what that idea may be.
Hoover and the commissioners had a PowerPoint presentation available with talking points on the topic.
The possible plan would include having four EMS hubs in Crawford County operating out of Bucyrus, Crestline, Galion and a fourth hub that would need to be established in the northcentral or northwest area of the county.
Hoover said a county ambulance operation would not alter the current fire department responsibilities.
Hoover said one possible hiccup already being presented is the cost dispersion among the county. Lucas County was an example used as the type of EMS services the county could possibly provide.
However, Lucas County uses a sales tax to pay for the services, while Crawford County would need to use a property tax due to the county reaching its limit on sales taxes able to be collected.
That raised concerns with township trustees who said the rural areas accounted for much less of current emergency runs but would account for the most taxes being collected.
Hoover said the county acknowledges the concern with the funding and will continue to look at options.
“Nothing in the presentation is set in stone, or is something we are definitely doing,” Hoover said. “These are more just points of discussion to get us talking about possibilities.”
Grants were also discussed as a way to fund a countywide service as local officials believe being a larger and newer entity could better the odds of receiving grants.
Hoover said the end result of the conversation may be for things to stay as they are, but county officials would feel like they did a disservice to the county’s residents if they did not at least discuss the possibility.
During Thursday’s meeting with officials from Bucyrus, Crestline and Galion, Bucyrus Fire Chief Jay Keller, Galion Fire Chief Phil Jackson and Crestline Village Administrator John Rostash and Bucyrus City Council Health and Safety Committee Chair Kevin Myers all said they are open to continuing the conversation in the future.