S. Lake Tahoe wants out of ambulance business
By Kathryn Reed
South Lake Tahoe Fire Department is on its way to returning to its primary focus — dealing with all things related to fire.
The City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to make this happen. Lake Valley Fire is poised to be the provider of all ambulance services in El Dorado County on the South Shore.
The Cal-Tahoe Joint Powers Authority has been wrestling for some time with how to make the financials balance. One of the problems is the city and Lake Valley – the entities making up the JPA – entered a contract with the county to provide three ambulances and get reimbursed for the cost of two. The other issue is how inter facility transfers (IFTs) affect service and the bottom line.
The JPA is paid a flat fee for the IFTs. Depending on how far of a drive it is – could be the Bay Area – it’s a losing proposition. It also means a depleted work force at the local stations. There were 640 IFTs in 2014, with 2015 on target to be higher than that.
“Our resource will be here all the time and not off the hill,” SLT Fire Chief Jeff Meston told Lake Tahoe News of the change. “We will have stability here.”
His biggest desire is to have his charges focus on fires.
In 2000, before the city had ambulances, 12 people worked any given fire shift to handle the 2,000 annual calls. In 2001, the first year of city provided ambulance service, the on duty staff was at 14 for 2,200 calls. Today the staff is at 10, with 3,200 annual calls.
What will change is that a paramedic will be added to the engines at Stations 1 and 3, meaning three people will be on each rig. That unit is likely to be the first to arrive, with a Lake Valley staffed ambulance to follow. Lake Valley would staff two ambulances at Station 2 in the city.
The contract with the county necessitates a certain response time. Lake Valley Fire Chief Gareth Harris at the July 7 meeting said his people would meet the criteria of the contract. People are not expected to notice a change in the level of service.
The cost savings for Lake Valley comes from hiring emergency medical technicians for the ambulances instead of each one having two paramedics.
Between the two agencies there are 17 fire employees per shift. Employing EMTs will bring that number to 19.
Ultimately the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors will vote on the proposal. The JPA board will discuss the matter July 13. If all goes through, the city’s representation on the board goes from two positions to one, with Lake Valley retaining two.
In other council action:
· City Attorney Tom Watson’s rolling three-year contract was extended for another year. Changes to his compensation package are being worked on.
· The Tahoe Prosperity Center will give another presentation on July 21 in an attempt to get the council to pony up $10,000. The majority of the council wants to see the nonprofit’s budget and have a better understanding of how the money would be spent.
· Direction was given to start work on forming a recreation joint powers authority with Lake Tahoe Community College and Lake Tahoe Unified School District.
There was a family owned ambulance service here in SLT but they got squeezd out by the city and the fire department. Now it starts all over… again. OLS
Of those 3,200 annual calls, if SLT still follows the national statistics, the vast majority of those calls are EMS calls, not fire. I don’t understand why the City doesn’t get out of the public safety business altogether & give it back to Lake Valley for fire/EMS & the County for police protection. As far as that goes, why doesn’t the City just admit it’s been a dismal failure on so many levels for 40+ years & disincorporate? The ongoing insanity boggles the mind.
Les bush and Dorothy the life savers!
The Bush ambulance took me to Barton when I dislocated my knee. When ol’ Doc Fry pushed it back into place I screamed so loud I’ll bet they heard me atop Mt. Tallac! Thank you Les Bush and thank you Dr. Fry. OLS
Are the lake valley staffed ambulances at station 2 going to be staffed with a civilian emt and civilian paramedic or sworn firefighter emt and a sworn firefighter paramedic? I can’t imagine there is going to be much cost savings for the program by replacing one sworn paramedic and replacing him with a sworn emt.
Now you can focus on putting out all those fires
It has always been beyond logic why the City and Lake Valley have never simply become one and eliminate much of the duplicity and overhead. Proof that government thrives on overlapping bureaucracy and cost inefficiency, who in their right mind would sign a contract that guaranteed long distance Interfacility Transfers would be a losing endeavor?
This began many years ago when unions representing firefighters got the State Legislature to pass a bill requiring cities to contract with fire districts to provide EMS services. Until then, a private ambulance company had provided that service here. The bill was never about saving money – it was about employing firemen.
X local, have you seen the problems the county is,having. Much less listening to locals on things like the Meyers plan or issues with that park in mMeyers? No thank you. All the country try would do is take our tax money an use it elsewhere. And since we in the city would represent about half of one supervisor, our concerns would be ignored and run over. Again. NO THANK YOU. Really not sure why you even care as you have left the area.
relo; At least you have half of a supervisor in the city, we have zero in Meyers. I am curious as to why we have to find out information on what is going on from an off the hill newspaper. There are some interesting happenings going on.
Chief Harris state in one sentence that there will be no change in service. Then in the next he says there will be an EMT and a Paramedic instead of 2 Paramedics. I would sure call the a change in service. Then it says that Lake Valley would run 2 Medic units out of the city fire station #2. That’s another change in service. Will Lake Valley still run an ambulance from their Meyers station. Seems like Harris is screwing his own district to run everything out of station #2. That’s a long way from my place in Meyers. I guess that’s why his own paramedics and firefighters had a 100% no confidence vote on this Harris guy. From what I here from some of the city firefighters Chief Meston isn’t a whole lot better. Send these 2 creeps down the road and find some real leadership which both departments have been lacking.