Emerson retains Red Oak EMS service

EMS services for the Emerson community will continue after previously being up in the air.
At the regular city council meeting on June 22, the Red Oak Council approved 28-E agreements with the Stanton, Villisca, Elliott, Emerson and Grant communities, at varying fees. While the agreements with four of the communities were also approved by the respective councils in other communities, at the council meeting on July 6, city administrator Lisa Kotter said Emerson was up in the air after discussions regarding the 28E agreement.
“Emerson had requested that they have some sort of protection going forward and were advised that there would be a maximum amount after the two yeas. For these initial 28E agreements, we’re leaving it at a lower fee for the two years, giving everybody in time to go through the essential service referendum idea, and giving them more time to look for money,” advised Kotter.  “Emerson officials asked if we could do a 200% cap. I agreed to that as I highly doubt we’re going to triple the cost for anybody for EMS service in two years, and I knew it was a safety net for them. Then they came back and said that they wanted a cap of 100% rather than 200% and I said no. We’re not giving that to any other communities in Montgomery County why would we give that to a higher level of promise to the one community we service that’s in Mills County?”
After declining that cap, Kotter said she was notified by another party that Emerson was looking to another entity for EMS.
“The Emerson Council had a special meeting which I found out about it from Brian Hamman, who received a text from somebody concerned about it and the text said that Emerson was choosing EMS services with Malvern. I agreed to ask about that and they had indicated that that they had an agreement with Malvern that was actually more money than we were charging but I don’t know if they have a cap with Malvern or other details,” commented Kotter. “According to what we’ve heard, we were going to charge $3,500 for two years of EMS coverage, and the agreement with Malvern is for $5,000 for six months.”
According to Kotter, Emerson had elected to enter into an ambulance service agreement with the City of Malvern rather than moving forward with the proposed 28-E Agreement with Red Oak. While Red Oak respects Emerson’s decision, there is currently no written agreement authorizing or defining Red Oak’s role in providing Advanced Life Support (ALS) services or backup ambulance response to Emerson. In the agreement between Malvern and Emerson, there is a reference that Malvern has an agreement with Red Oak to provide ALS care. That agreement is for the Malvern response area and not Emerson’s.  The City was not consulted about the fact that this reference was in a 28E between Malvern and Emerson.  If that were to be requested, it would be appropriate to have a three-way 28-E agreement and compensation as appropriate, depending on the responding agency.
“I got on their agenda for their July 8 meeting and said we’re fine and spoke to them, making it clear that if they’re not paying us they can’t just tag on to the ALS call. If Malvern’s responding and they don’t have ALS people, which they don’t, then they’re in trouble. They can’t provide ALS services and if they’re not available because they’re a volunteer organization then no one’s coming. I am concerned, as I’ve heard some comments and I don’t think that the Emerson council really understands the difference.”
A resolution was proposed stating that since Red Oak has not entered into any written agreement to provide backup ambulance service or Advanced Life Support (ALS) services in conjunction with Emerson’s agreement with another provider; the City Administrator was authorized and directed to provide written notice to the City of Emerson that the City of Red Oak will discontinue responding to EMS calls within the City of Emerson effective as of 12:01 a.m. on Monday, July 13 if a 28E agreement was not issued between the two communities.
When asked if the Red Oak was liable if someone in Emerson passed from lack of emergency response, Kotter said it was not.
“We have no legal responsibility to even respond to our own community, because it’s not an essential service. It’s on the elected officials in Emerson. That’s the thing, I think that people continue to struggle with regarding this subject. Fire departments are mandatory. Nobody can choose not to have a fire department, but it is legally okay in the state of Iowa to not have any of these. So, there’s no responsibility on that,” advised Kotter. “According to what we’ve heard, they’ve chosen Malvern, and I have gone to them to make sure that they understand that by choosing Malvern, they’re choosing a basic level service with volunteers. That’s the whole reason why we are backup to Stanton and Villisca, they both have the same volunteer departments, but we are the backup to their volunteers, based on the fact that we have full-time employees.”
The council did approve the resolution ending EMS service with Emerson on July 13, however, Kotter did meet with members of the Emerosn city Council at its July 8 meeting, and after discussion, the Emerson Council approved a 28E agreement with Red Oak for EMS services by a 4-0 vote, and also voted 4-0 to end the agreement the city had just started with Malvern.