By Steve Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
Copyright 2007 The Salt Lake Tribune
All Rights Reserved
BLUFFDALE, Utah — This city of 7,000 is sounding a siren of change in its ambulance and paramedic services.
Bluffdale Fire Chief John Roberts touted a move before the City Council this week that would bring those emergency services in-house. He and fellow firefighter Kevin Holt said that would provide quicker service and increased revenue for Bluffdale.
“This would provide a faster response that will get people to the hospital quicker,” Holt said. “In our current situation, with Riverton and Herriman, there’s one ambulance that goes to all the cities. If that’s out on call, we have to wait on Draper or South Jordan to respond.”
The Unified Fire Authority currently serves Riverton, Bluffdale and Herriman in an area-wide ambulance service. If Bluffdale proves it has the need and necessity for a change, that would mean a loss of revenue for UFA and, Holt said, an eventual gain in revenue for Bluffdale.
An in-house ambulance could have generated $186,000 last year alone, a number that will only increase as time goes on, Holt said. But the ambulance and paramedics service would cost well over $200,000 to start - $150,000 would go toward a new ambulance, $12,000 toward a used ambulance and $55,000 for supplies. The city would also have to add as many as 14 paramedics at a rate of $14 to $15 per hour.
The City Council still is considering the numbers, and several members said they have seen nothing compelling enough to approve a change.
Meanwhile, Unified Fire Authority Chief Don Berry said Bluffdale has been getting free paramedic services for the past two years. Its contract expired in July 2005 when the county fire service signed over to Unified Fire Authority.
That means Bluffdale is not complying with a state law that requires cities to pay for paramedic services.
“We’d like to renegotiate so we have a valid contract in place, because it’s state law that we do,” Berry said. “They [Bluffdale officials] are just not aware of what needs to be done; we’re not accusing them of deliberately not complying with the law.”
Deputy Chief Michael Jensen said the fire authority has made a conscious decision to provide Bluffdale paramedics services anyway - because it’s a matter of life and death.
“We don’t want to put someone’s life in jeopardy when it’s some amount of money at question,” he said. “It’s not the residents of Bluffdale’s fault. The UFA has gone out of its way to still go in and provide the services.”
But Roberts said Bluffdale still has a contract through 2008 that says the county will provide paramedic services for $25,000 per year. It’s simply still in the name of Salt Lake County Fire rather than the Unified Fire Authority, which has not yet billed the city.
“I still have a contract; it’s still the same people,” he said. “But I’m not here to fight, I just want to get my citizens the best service available. When strokes and heart attacks happen, time is of the essence.”