By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

ROCHESTER — Fulton County is working on negotiating with an alternate EMS provider after Lutheran EMS withdrew its bid for service.

The topic was discussed at a special joint meeting of the Fulton County Commissioners and Fulton County Council on Wednesday, March 13, at the Fulton County Office Building.

Leaders had initially arranged the special meeting to discuss a delay in Lutheran communicating with the county about a new EMS contract, but had to pivot after Lutheran announced on Tuesday, March 12, it was taking back its bid.

In a letter sent to Commissioners’ President Bryan Lewis, Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital CEO Lynn Mergen stated the following:

“We entered into the (request for proposal process) with an expectation of accepting a mutually agreeable go-forward agreement. However, at this point in time, we have concluded that we must focus our resources elsewhere while we enhance and expand the facility-based healthcare we provide in this region. We know that Fulton County will be in very good hands with your alternate provider.”

Fulton County leaders had started working on obtaining bids from several companies after Lutheran opted to remove its third ambulance in the county from Akron. With only several years left on the current, 10-year contract with Lutheran, the county decided to use EMS consulting firm, Ritter Strategic Services, to consider more ambulance choices.

The county had several public meetings to garner public input and put together a committee representative of the whole county to advise leaders.

The committee consisted of: Commissioners’ Vice President Rick Ranstead, Fulton County Council President Ron Dittman, Fulton County EMA and 911 Communications Director Gail Karas, Akron Clerk-Treasurer Rebecca Hartzler, Kewanna Town Council member Jeff Finke, Rochester Fire Department Chief Tom Butler and Woodlawn Hospital Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer Paula McKinney.

Stipulations for quotes were they were for four-year contracts and would include three ambulance sites: one in Akron, Kewanna and Rochester.

Quotes came in from Lutheran, Parkview EMS and Heartland Ambulance Service.

Parkview was ruled out as it misunderstood what the county desired, thinking: “We wanted them to help us start an ambulance service,” said Ranstead.

With Lutheran having the lowest bid, the county used law firm Ice Miller to negotiate a new contract with the entity.

Lutheran asked for several short-term service extensions over the last few months while the entity went over the contract. The county granted them, but after learning about the last one at the end of February in which Lutheran asked for a new service extension to April 1, county leaders said they’d extend it provided Lutheran put an ambulance back in Akron on March 1.

Lutheran didn’t meet the deadline or communicate with the county until after March 1.

Thus leaders agreed Wednesday to start negotiating with Heartland, based in Muncie. Heartland’s bid was $1.35 million annually, more than three times what Lutheran’s had been.

However RSS’ Brent Meadows, who was present at the meeting, said he and RSS head Barry Ritter would “ask (Heartland) to sharpen their pencils” or drop the price.

Ritter, who attended the meeting electronically, noted there were only “minor” differences between the scope of what Heartland would provide versus Lutheran and RSS would work to iron out those while negotiating.

Dittman said the county council was to discuss potentially implementing a special local income tax to help cover the cost of Heartland if needed. Those funds would only be used for EMS.

As an example, Dittman noted the tax worked out to a person with a $50,000 salary paying “$100 more a year in taxes.”

“It’s not something that there is a person up here that wants to do, but for us to supply our needs of Fulton County, and keep our citizens protected, is what we must do,” he said.

The public would have a chance to weigh in before a vote on the tax. Dittman said the tax if approved this year, wouldn’t go into effect until next year, thus making tax funds ineligible to be used until 2026. The county would have to use other money until then.

“None of us up here on this board want to raise taxes, but we have 21,000 people we need to think about, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he reiterated.

Leaders Wednesday also signed an extension with Lutheran for the company to provide EMS in the county until June 30, giving the county time to secure a new EMS provider.