Changes ahead, questions remain for Green Springs EMS

GREEN SPRINGS – Come 2016, Jim Anderson and his son, Bill, will be out of a job — as volunteers. Both are among the 15 volunteers who run with the Green Springs EMS squad, operated by Seneca County.

“I personally considered it a perfect Job,” Jim Anderson said in a recent interview.

Although Jim Anderson volunteers with Seneca County’s EMS squad, he actually retired from Sandusky County EMS in 2008. “I have been doing this a long time,” he said.

The Anderson family has devoted many hours to the Green Springs EMS squad, which serves the village plus Adams and Pleasant township residents including Old Fort. But not all of the unit volunteers are as committed.

The EMS squad is often left short-handed, and if there is only one volunteer is available, it is listed as out of service. That was the case 73 percent of the time in 2014.

Green Springs' mayor and trustees from adjoining Adams and Pleasant townships in Seneca County spent more than a year reviewing the EMS situation before opting for a different system than relying on volunteers to cover Green Springs.

They asked voters on Nov. 3 for funds to hire a private EMS service, and the levy was approved by voters in Green Springs and Adams Township that is expected to raise nearly $150,000 toward an EMS contract. Pleasant Township voters, however, rejected the levy.

“We will do a request for bids on a contract for services for EMS,” said Green Springs Mayor Adam Greenslade. “We did have a plan put together, but it did include Pleasant Township. We’re going to proceed and see where it goes.”

Ken Majors, the Seneca County EMS director, said, “We’re making arrangements to be gone by Jan. 1.” But Seneca County would continue to cover the area until a new EMS is in place sometime next year, he added.

“When Green Springs is fully operational, we are the top running squad in the county,” said Bill Anderson, the assistant coordinator and a volunteer for the Green Springs squad. His full-time job is working for Life Start and the Seneca County Echo Unit, which supports other EMS units.

When Green Springs EMS was fully staffed, it handled on average more than 400 emergency calls a year, he said. But the squad has had a long history of being short-staffed even though the volunteers' EMT training is paid for.

When the unit is out of service, the territory is divided among other squads. The village — located in two counties —  can be split. EMS calls are covered by Sandusky County Life Squad 18 or Life Squad 15 in the village, or another Seneca County EMS unit 15 to 20 minutes away. Adams and Pleasant townships EMS calls are answered by Republic and Bettsville EMS units.

The Seneca EMS director said that other townships have created EMS districts and in four districts the volunteers are paid $3.50 an hour — similar to an on-call rate.

Greenslade said he did not think paying volunteers $3.50 an hour would fix the problem in his village.

Majors agreed that Green Springs EMS normally would have the highest number of calls in Seneca County, due to emergency calls to Elmwood at the Springs, a second Elmwood care facility, and an elementary school being located in Green Springs.

In 2015, it has been more common that calls in Green Springs are answered by Sandusky County EMS units from Fremont or Clyde.

Jeff Jackson, director of the Sandusky County EMS, said the county has four full-time paid Life Squad staffs on duty — a totally different system than the one in Seneca County. He added that he has not considered seeking a contract to put a Life Squad in Green Springs to cover the village or Adams Township.

But Jackson said one of his squads makes runs to the village a couple times a week, answering calls because of the volunteer problems in Green Springs.

Jackson is not sure how, even with the new property taxes for EMS services, that Green Springs and Adams Township will be able to afford a private system. His department's budget is nearly $2.7 million a year for four squads manned 24 hours a day, but he pointed out that his staff responds only to emergencies.

Jackson pointed out that a private company could supplement its emergency calls with transfers between hospitals and nursing homes if the contract permitted.

Green Springs Village voters approved a 4.94-mill levy that will raise about $75,000 that will be split between fire and EMS services, according to Greenslade.

Adams Township Trustee Bill Frankart said the 2.47-mill levy approved by his township will raise about $107,000 annually for five years.

But Pleasant Township rejected the same 2.47-mill levy, which would have raised $129,000 annually toward EMS coverage, according to Trustee Dave Kingsborough.

Both Jim and Bill Anderson are not sure that Green Springs will get the service they expect from a private company. Jim Anderson said he thought paying $3.50 an hour may have been enough to keep the Green Springs EMS manned. “I would tend to think that would have a chance.”

Frankart said the EMS Committee with him, Greenslade and Kingsborough will meet with the assistant county prosecutor to start the process of seeking bids for private service. “We want to expedite this as quickly as possible,” he said.

Frankart and Greenslade said it could be mid-2016 before taxes and contracts are in place for the new service to begin operating.

Frankart added that he could not understand why Seneca County could not come up with some type of countywide plan similar to Sandusky County's, instead of the commissioners throwing the EMS funding back on the townships.

Once a private Green Springs-Adams Township service is in place, Frankart predicts that the number of EMS calls received by a Green Springs squad will increase.

As for the Old Fort area and Pleasant Township, Kingsborough said he is not sure what EMS unit will be covering his area when changes go into effect in 2016.

Majors assured, though, that the township would be covered by a Seneca EMS squad, possibly from Bettsville.

rrbrooks@gannett.com

419-334-1059