By Marc Benjamin
Fresno Bee (California)
Copyright 2006 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc
Residents of Tarpey Village will see a change in the way emergency medical services are provided beginning in July, but how much that service changes will depend on how often Fresno County Fire Protection District dispatchers will call Clovis Fire Department to respond to medical emergencies.
Residents are expected to get answers about the medical-aid service change when they meet with Fresno County Fire officials at 6:45 p.m. today at Miramonte Elementary School in Clovis.
Clovis Fire Department answers medical calls in Tarpey Village now, but on July 1 the city will begin charging a $950 fee to Fresno County Fire Protection District to go to Tarpey Village and areas within one mile of Clovis. The city charges nothing to go to medical-aid calls now.
The fee will be charged, Clovis Fire Chief Mark Aston said, because answering calls in Tarpey threatens to leave parts of Clovis uncovered. He also said city taxpayers pick up the cost of answering medical-aid calls outside the city limits.
The Tarpey area has about 1,300 homes and 4,000 residents.
Bob Levinson, Tarpey Neighborhood Association president, said some residents are worried the fee would mean Clovis firefighters, who get to Tarpey faster, will not be called as often.
Clovis’ nearest station is closer than the county’s nearest station, but residents fear that dispatchers will call the county first to save money.
Last year, Clovis answered 10 times as many medical calls in county areas than county firefighters did in Clovis. The city also will pay the county $950 to respond to medical-aid calls. Both agencies will handle each other’s fires without a fee.
Fresno County Fire Protection District Chief Stan Craig will use tonight’s meeting to create a policy for the district board to discuss in its 5 p.m. Wednesday meeting at Sunnyside Health & Tennis Club.
“We are hearing from the Tarpey Village area and really it is a 180-degree spread on their philosophy,” he said. “We want to hear from them and put something together that is responsible and won’t be a fiscal nightmare for us.”
Craig said he doesn’t expect the district to stop using Clovis.
Clovis initially asked the district to pay about $200,000 — about half of what the area pays in property tax to the district — for medical-aid calls from Tarpey Village and other areas within a mile of the city limits. The district rejected the request; Clovis Mayor Nathan Magsig proposed the $950-per-call fee.
The district “couldn’t afford to lose the revenue,” said Amy Knight, Fresno County Fire Protection District chairwoman.
“We are not paying our guys to stay in quarters and we will have to pay them whether they sit in quarters or not,” said Knight, who was the lone dissenting vote when the district board agreed to the fee.
She said any money spent on Clovis firefighters going to Tarpey will squeeze services in other areas of the district.
She also said Tarpey residents pay for Clovis services whenever they shop in Clovis and pay sales tax.