Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Medical Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Southwest Shiawassee requests $1.2M for two ambulances to serve 192-square-mile response area
Summary
Southwest Shiawassee Emergency Services Authority asked the House appropriations subcommittee for $1.2 million to buy two fully equipped ambulances to cover a largely rural portion of Shiawassee County and to support additional patient transports with Memorial Healthcare.
Representative Julie Bagole asked the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor and Economic Opportunity on June 11 for $1,200,000 to purchase two fully equipped ambulances for the Southwest Shiawassee Emergency Services Authority, which serves roughly 192 square miles and about 22,605 residents.
The request comes as Southwest Shiawassee and partner Memorial Healthcare expect about 2,000 additional transports annually in connection with transfers to advanced care centers in Lansing, Flint, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Saginaw. Chief Trent Atkins described an existing call volume of about 3,000 9-1-1 responses per year and said the fleet is aging and increasingly unreliable.
“The cost of the critical components inside the ambulance is as much as what it cost to buy the ambulance nowadays,” Chief Trent Atkins said, citing examples including a $70,000 cardiac monitor and $50,000 cots. He said the replacements will reduce downtime and improve response times.
Nut graf: The request is framed as a rural public-safety funding need: aging vehicles, expected higher transport volumes from a hospital partnership, and a local tax base that committee witnesses said cannot easily absorb further fee or millage increases.
Officials said the $1.2 million would cover purchase of both ambulances and the on-board medical and transport equipment. Deputy Chief Dan Monroe said the local fleet routinely runs beyond the recommended replacement cycle — ambulances should be replaced every five years but some in the fleet have been in service eight to nine years — and maintenance and emergency repairs have grown frequent.
During questioning, members asked whether the ambulances had been identified and whether the appropriation would fully cover acquisition and equipment costs. Chief Atkins and Bagole replied the authority had identified vehicles and that the requested amount would fully cover the ambulances and critical on-board equipment.
Ending: The subcommittee did not take an immediate vote on the request; presenters were given time to present their projects to the committee for consideration in the appropriations process.
