LEESBURG — Yesterday evening, Thursday, Sept. 3, Prairie Township Trustee and board members met for the township budget review and to hear contract proposals for EMS services for 2016 from Lutheran EMS and Tri-County EMS Service.

According to Julia Goon, Prairie Township Trustee, a proposal was given by Lutheran EMS, formerly known as Multi-Township EMS, for a three-year contract with a 25 percent reduction in tax subsidy from previous years — bringing the contracted annual amount to $10,500. Lutheran also proposed in their contract they will be the sole contracted ambulance provider for Prairie Township.

Lutheran EMS currently has eight ambulances and 60 employees in Kosciusko County. Goon noted the base rate for services from Lutheran is $1,400 for ALS with a mileage allowance. The service averages 6,000 runs per year.

Goon noted concerns with the township regarding Lutheran’s proposal include the fact the contract leaves out a termination clause, which was provided in previous contracts. In addition, Lutheran has extended the contract to a three-year agreement instead of the normal one-year contract typically offered to Prairie Township. Goon noted the exclusive nature of the contract, which forbids the township to contract with other EMS services, is also a point of concern.

A second proposal was cast by Tri-County ambulance services, which recently opened its doors in Warsaw in the Babsco Building located on SR 15 and US 30. According to Goon, the service is a “neutral EMS,” that is family-owned. Tri-County serves Elkhart, St. Joseph and Marshall counties and are the primary 911 service in Bremen and are a EMS transfer service.

According to Goon, Tri-County has 18 ambulances and a total of 110 employees. The base rate is $700 for ALS run with a mileage allowance. The service responds to an average of 20,000 runs per year. Goon noted Tri-County is open to contracting with townships in Kosciusko for a 911 service. The organization prepared a sample contract for Prairie Township to review.

Equipped with extensive information from both organizations, Prairie Township currently tabled the vote on an EMS service provider until a future date. Goon noted the township plans to meet with Parkview to see what they may have to offer for EMS services.

“We want to do what is best for taxpayers and we are open to all options. We are not being pushed into a contract with the sale of MTEMS that was started 38 years ago by five townships (Wayne, Prairie, Plain, Etna and Clay) and have been subsidized by tax dollars since the beginning of time. The sale was a major concern of ours as it should have been to all taxing units of government. We strongly feel it should have been more transparent of selling out and put up for bids since they have received over a million dollars a year in taxpayer monies to run their business,” stated Goon.

Though MTEMS was a private company and as such, was not required to open up to bids, Goon notes Prairie Township believes this would have been “good public policy” due to the fact the organization received taxpayer money each year.

“MTEMS was a not-for-profit company and sold to a profit company that is still wanting 3 million to 4 million dollars a year from tax subsidy. There are several townships in Kosciusko County that have not yet contracted for 2016 — Wayne Township, Harrison Township, Prairie Township and there may be some others. Lake and Seward Townships left MTEMS several years ago and contracted with Life Med,” noted Goon.

Goon noted Prairie Township adopted the establishment of the CUM Fire Fund for 2016 payable starting in 2017 for the future purchase of a pumper/tanker combo firetruck.

“We are proud that we have purchased all of our equipment and built onto our Fire Station without borrowing money,” stated Goon.

The budget for Prairie Township remains the same as 2015 and was reviewed. The budget will be adopted on Sept. 14.