Excerpts from wgld.org:
The senior member of the Normal Town Council says there’s something missing in the debate over closing the College Avenue fire station when a new east side station opens in a couple months.
Firefighters have said increases in call volume in central Normal will create a gap in service when the closure happens. But Mayor Pro Tempore Kevin McCarthy said that ignores the idea that responses come from more than just ambulance and fire trucks.
He said there are several ways for the system to meet the standard of a 4–6-minute response 90% of the time, including mutual aid responses from Bloomington, which are being talked about as a failure of the system which he claims they are not; they are a designed piece of the system. And Computer Aided Dispatch, which went into service in July, will speed up responses because the system knows where all vehicles are all the time.
The town has said Bloomington units respond to Normal and Normal units to Bloomington in roughly equal measure, even though Bloomington is larger.
McCarthy said records show most fire department units still spend most of the time available at stations and that the union study is not the only data out there. He says a lot of town research has gone into selecting sites for fire stations including the new one at Shepard and Hershey roads that will open when the College Avenue station closes.
The town will eventually relocate the third fire station, currently on Raab Road, possibly further west on Raab in an effort to offer better service on the west side of town, but the precise location will depend on property availability and on a future data study by the town.
Kris Newcomb, the system coordinator of the McLean County Area EMS System – Office of the Medical Director, sent a letter to council members urging them to embrace the union study.
“The tenuous state of EMS coverage in our community mirrors the broader EMS workforce challenges seen across the nation. However, local inaction amplifies the problem,” wrote Newcomb.
The system was established in 1999 as a collaboration between Carle BroMenn Medical Center and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, according to the organization website. It represents 48 EMS agencies and over 900 providers from a mix of public, private, fire-based, third-service, industrial, university, and dispatch agencies. The system also partners with Heartland Community College on a paramedic training program.
Newcomb cited rising demand for service and said the refusal of the town council to acknowledge that increase “coupled with stagnant staffing will lead to delayed response times, diminished quality of care, and increased provider burnout and turnover.”
McCarthy rejected Newcomb’s description of EMS service as “tenuous.”
“My understanding of that situation is that was that individual’s personal political viewpoint. That was not the viewpoint of the agency … The agency sponsors and funders were made aware of that letter … and apologized and reiterated that does not reflect the official position of that agency and that service,” said McCarthy.
thanks Martin
