Carlisle looking for EMS answers

Council to apply for funding to study its medical service options.

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Skip Weaver, Staff Writer 1:36 AM Wednesday, February 15, 2012

CARLISLE — Mayor Randy Winkler said he is “reaching out” to the city of Franklin and Franklin Twp. to study options and the future of the Joint Emergency Medical Services District.

He also said he wants to find out if there is any interest in a joint fire district.

“We have an EMS model to work off of,” Winkler said. “But not knowing what they want to do leaves us vulnerable because we need to be able to provide protection for our citizens.”

At its last two work sessions, Franklin City Council has discussed three options for how it wanted to move forward with its EMS service.

Those options include remaining with JEMS, privatization or creating its own fire-based service.

Those discussions have set in motion concerns from Franklin Twp. and Carlisle officials, as well as some residents, about the future of their EMS coverage.

“We need to seriously sit down and find out what we have to do,” said Councilman Scott Boschert, who is Carlisle’s representative on the JEMS board. “JEMS, in my opinion, can’t sustain (if Franklin pulls out) based on the numbers I’ve seen.”

In 2011, there were 397 JEMS’ runs for Carlisle, or 12.5 percent of the total runs for the three communities. The average cost per run for Carlisle was $189.11, and Carlisle’s portion of the tax revenues that support JEMS was $75,075, or 15 percent of the total.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that JEMS will still represent two communities (if Franklin pulls out),” Village Manager Sherry Callahan said. “We know some of our options and we are gathering information so we can make a presentation to our council.”

In the meantime, council did approve for Callahan to apply for a Local Government Innovation Fund feasibility study that if granted will promote efficiency, shared services, coproduction and mergers among local government projects.

Callahan said she will seek out the other two entities — Franklin and Franklin Twp. — to be part of the application.

“I think that will get us some answers about how the other entities feel about this,” Vice Mayor Jennifer Long said of asking Franklin and Franklin Twp. to join in the feasibility study. “It’s not a simple answer. There are many factors we have to look at and we don’t control all of them. We need some more information like what the cost will be of they do pull out?”

Contact this reporter at Skip.Weaver@coxinc.com.

Council continued on C2

Share this article