Citizens Hose Ambulance Service is getting ready to merge with Eureka EMS.
Both services will keep their buildings, but what is new is an $85 fee for each household in the service area.
The new Alle-Kiski Emergency Services Authority will also cost businesses $150 a year.
Supervisor James Erb says a big challenge over the years has been that EMS is not getting paid for every call.
“If we don’t transport a patient, we don’t get paid,” he said, “so, up to a third of our calls in any week, they could be refusals, they could be accidental alarms and so forth.”
Erb says the fee would close that funding gap while increasing pay for first responders.
“EMS folks who have been low-paid for so many years, they are starting to make a livable wage, but this will increase and let them thrive a little bit. They shouldn’t have to work two or three jobs,” he said.
The combined 10 ambulances at both departments would be consolidated down to seven. But Erb says the only thing people will notice is the fee in the mail.
“The residents will not notice a difference in the service or the quality of service that they’ve come to be accustomed to over many, many decades,” he said.
People that we spoke with said when it comes to life-and-death situations, they’re okay to pay the fee.
“If you can save someone’s life, it’s well worth it. You know? That’s what they try to do,” Harrison Township resident Frank Witucki said.
The board is expected to have the new EMS service operational by April.
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