Volunteer EMTs, paid staffing and oversight concerns surface in public comment
Don Sligar urged the district to protect volunteer firefighters and EMTs while developing paid staffing, cautioning that volunteers could disappear when grant funding ends. He also asked who would oversee any expanded ambulance services.
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Don Sligar spoke during public comment to clarify his position on emergency medical services and to urge the district to protect volunteer responders while supporting paid paramedics and EMTs. "Just for the record, I did not say that EMTs have ran it for years. I said before we had paramedics, our we had EMTs and advanced EMTs, and we made it work," Sligar said. He acknowledged the value of paramedics but warned that turning services into a fully paid model could erode volunteer capacity after grants expire.
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