Streator council nixes ambulance purchases, for now

The Streator City Council said no Wednesday to providing the city manager the authority to buy two refurbished ambulances.

City Manager David Plyman requested the council give him permission to buy two ambulances not to exceed $200,000 apiece; however, council members Brian Crouch, Matt McMullen and Jacob Darby voted no to the proposal. Councilman Timothy Geary abstained and Mayor Tara Bedei voted yes.

Plyman said the ambulance purchases would have sped up the time it takes the city to complete the regulatory process to handle emergency ambulance billing in-house. McMullen, Darby and Geary said they needed more information before making a large investment of tax dollars. Crouch said he wasn’t ready to comment on the issue yet.

Other than AMT’s initial proposal, council members have not heard what it may cost to retain emergency ambulance services.

The city was given a June deadline from Advanced Medical Transport to decide whether it would retain its services. AMT, the private ambulance company that services Streator for 911 calls, asked the city to contribute $400,000 for the first year, $500,000 the second year, $600,000 the third year and $700,000 the fourth year to continue providing service within the city. AMT has provided the Streator area with 911 paramedic ambulance service since 2004. In that time, the city has not contracted with or compensated AMT.

Plyman is researching options to provide emergency ambulance service for the city, including contracting private companies or utilizing the Streator Fire Department. While he soon will advertise for requests for proposals from private companies, he said the city should acquire the equipment and vehicles necessary to provide the services, as well as handle the billing process. If the proposed vehicles were determined unnecessary, he said the city could sell them for about the same price as it bought them.

With that said, Plyman said he will speak with council members about what information they need, and the item can be readdressed at a future council meeting. The city manager said he doesn’t want to see the city delay on applying for the regulatory process, so the city can handle billing as soon as a new ambulance service is launched. He noted when Duffy Ambulance left Pontiac abruptly, Pontiac’s government acquired the billing process, but lost out on revenue or had it delayed waiting for the regulatory process to play out.

Plyman expects to have bids from private ambulance companies ready in June for the council to choose its path. He said not buying the ambulances or delaying the purchases will not affect the bidding process, because the bidding is for personnel costs, not equipment. He continues to talk with the firefighters union in collective bargaining, but he said there are some concerns that would need to be settled to make the option viable. All options still are on the table, he said.

An AMT official told the council Feb. 8 with rising operational costs, including labor, technology and equipment, it is no longer financially sustainable for AMT to operate in Streator without financial assistance from the city. OSF Center for Health-Streator is required to have an ambulance on-hand for its standalone emergency room to transfer patients to hospitals. Recently OSF negotiated an agreement with Stark County Ambulance to service transfers to other hospitals, housing an ambulance within its facility on Sixth Street. AMT was handling these transfers prior to that agreement.

AMT has told the city manager it will continue servicing Streator until October.