CJAD to bid for new ambulance service

BUCYRUS – Crawford County's Central Joint Ambulance District voted Monday evening to end its contract with Life Support Inc., its current ambulance service provider, and begin the bidding process to find a new provider.

The decision, by a 15-0 vote, came in the wake of mixed signals from Life Support on whether it wanted to continue providing the service to the city of Bucyrus, village of New Washington, and 14 of the county's 16 townships.

At Monday's CJAD meeting, Jesse Sipes, director of Life Support, said the company had no intention of leaving Crawford County. On Friday, Thom Durbin, owner of Life Support Team, met with Bucyrus city officials and gave them the same message.

"You guys really have not quit. You're not terminating your contract. You're going to keep doing your job as best you can," Dale Sipe, director of the CJAD, confirmed to Sipes at Monday's meeting.

But several members of the board expressed doubts about the willingness of Life Support's upper management to continue serving the county, especially in the wake of comments by their attorney, J. Jeffrey Heck, that the company had no interest in securing a performance bond, as required by law to provide ambulance service here.

"I personally think the bridges have been burned. Upper management has been unresponsive," Holmes Township Trustee Ron Miller said.

"The care has been pretty good, Jesse has done a good job, but I'm concerned about the bond issue. That needs to be dealt with," Dallas Township Trustee Milt Underwood said.

Jeff Wagner, service-safety director for the city of Bucyrus, stated the city's position: "The contract has not been lived up to, and we have got to hold them accountable," he said.

Life Support's contract with CJAD had problems from the outset, mostly stemming from a lawsuit filed in Richland County that left it unable to acquire a contractually required performance bond. The litigation stems from a non-compete clause that one party to the suit claims was not honored.

Last August, a year after Thom and Samantha Durbin sold their 27-year-old company, Mansfield Ambulance, to American EMS LLC, American sued the Durbins, alleging that they were still doing business in the region via another company they owned, Life Support Team, despite signing a five-year non-compete clause.

A judge later denied preliminary injunctive relief for American EMS, but that's of no help to the ambulance company currently serving Crawford County without a performance bond, as a jury trial is still scheduled to begin in July.

"The company also cited an extremely hostile group of community members to their employees as a reason to end their contract," Crawford County Prosecutor Matthew Crall said.

The prosecutor said Life Support retained some employees from the county's previous ambulance provider, but not all of them. The CJAD had been with LifeStar Ambulance, out of Toledo, for 11 years.

But a letter Crall received from Life Support late Monday failed to clarify matters.

"I thought it would say they wish to terminate the contract. It does not say that. But they do not foresee getting a performance bond and have said that, even if they could, they wouldn't," Crall said.

"We have issues not with the personnel at Life Support, but upper management in their communication with us, and we have breach of contract. We need to review our options," Sipe said before the vote to bid for a new ambulance company.

He said Life Support had been given 90 days to secure a performance bond and then was given a 30-day extension and then another 30-day extension after that.

"It's over. This is a small issue. It can be resolved," he said.

Despite the vote, Life Support is contractually obligated to continue providing ambulance service to the county until a new provider is brought on board. Crall said the bidding process will take six to eight weeks.

"Life Support, I'm sorry it came down to this, but please keep up your work," Sipe told Sipes.

The Central Joint Ambulance District will meet again at 7 p.m. Monday in the basement of the sheriff's office to review the contract it will offer the next company to provide ambulance service to the county.

thill3@nncogannett.com

419-563-9225

Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ