Clarion County is looking to Harrisburg for the “authority to create an authority.”
If legislation is adopted in Harrisburg, local municipalities could form an authority to deal with the emergency medical services crisis.
In 1991, there were 10 EMS agencies in Clarion County, and today there are only five. It has been stated, at times no ambulance is available in the county and in those cases an ambulance has to be pulled from another county.
Jeff Smathers, director of the county’s department of public safety, said the state could help by giving counties and local municipalities the ability to create emergency services authorities.
Smathers also said volunteer fire departments are going down the same path as ambulance and EMS services.
Clarion County Commissioner Ted Tharan said the bill would give municipalities “the authority to form an authority.”
“I would think that if you have a problem in the entire county that you would want a county authority instead of leaving it up to every township and borough to have their own,” he said. “That would be a nightmare.
Clarion County Commissioner Ed Heasly said the only certainty about the current system is it doesn’t work, and the problem is nationwide.
In April, the commissioners formed a countywide emergency medical services task force to work with the Department of Community and Economic Development to complete a study that looks for additional revenue areas and discover ways to find, train and educate additional EMS providers.
Heasley said legislation in Harrisburg is pending, but there has been no action.