JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council unanimously approved a service agreement between the City and Alstar EMS during a voting session on Monday evening.
According to the resolution, the agreement is for four years subject to the approval of Corporation Counsel Elliott Raimondo. The agreement concerns the provision of basic and advanced life support, paramedic assessment and ambulance transportation services, technical billing assistance and training for the members of the Jamestown Fire Department.
Alstar, according to the agreement, would maintain two ambulances in Jamestown 24/7, as well as give the Jamestown Fire Department access to their training center, and access to ePCR and/or billing services. This also allows for yearly tabletop exercises between the ambulance service and the City.
The agreement states that, in no event shall Alstar provide less than two providers per ambulance, except in cases of emergency. In times of high demand, if Alstar’s dedicated ambulances are unavailable to respond to a call, the City, through the Jamestown Fire Department, would back-up ALSTAR’s dedicated ambulances as needed.
Alstar EMS previously ended its mutual response call agreement with the City of Jamestown in January. The Jamestown Fire Department’s only ambulance then became the sole responder in within city limits.
Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, in the resolution that he introduced during a Work Session earlier this Monday, said that allowing the fire department to bill should see a significant increase in monies collected.
The City will be “soft-billing” i.e. sending out bills to all who have been transported in the City ambulance, but only collecting from insurance, according to the Mayor. Alstar will no longer pay JFD per call, however the revenue from billing should be significantly more than the City has received from Alstar in the past.
The Council also unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Sundquist to enter into an agreement with The Jamestown Professional Fire Fighters Association IAFF Local 137 allowing for the use of the free IamResponding app to be used as an emergency form of contact subject to the approval from Raimondo.
According to the resolution, the app would be an alternative, but optional, form of contact for off-duty firefighters.
Jamestown City Council’s next meeting will be a Work Session, which is scheduled for next Monday night.
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