Monica Pryts
Allied News, Grove City, Pa.
GROVE CITY, Pa. — Doug Dick is hoping for a good turnout for a town hall meeting he’s planning to discuss the EMS crisis.
The public meeting is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, at Grove City High School, 511 Highland Ave., Grove City.
Attendees should enter the school through the commons area doors.
Dick, EMS chief of Superior Ambulance Service and Education Institute in Pine Township said those who come will learn more about the EMS crisis happening locally and across the state.
Dick has been trying to spread the word among the 22 municipalities the company serves in Mercer, Butler and Venango counties and beyond that local EMS providers are facing their own emergency.
Dwindling resources, including fewer employees and declining revenues, continue to put a strain on Superior Ambulance, Dick has said.
An EMS task force, created in fall 2021, has met multiple times to engineer a solution, and a state House panel held a hearing in the area this past October.
Last month, Dick sent a letter to the 22 municipalities, requesting that they adopt a half-mill property tax increase to help support the company.
If the municipalities don’t respond, Dick said in the letter that Superior will charge them $500 every time Superior is dispatched – with 90 days’ advance notice.
Dick said the municipalities have a legal obligation to provide emergency services.
That letter has generated more discussion among local elected officials, who noted that many of them had completed their budgets for 2023 by the time they received the letter.
Some of the municipal officials have said that they want to help Superior, but they need to figure how they can help in accordance with state codes that govern operations in the 22 boroughs and townships.
Grove City borough plans to form its own committee and study the issue, and Liberty Township adopted a half-mill EMS tax earlier this year.
Superior Ambulance serves these communities:
- Mercer County;
- Townships of Coolspring, East Lackawannock, Findley, Jackson, Jefferson, Lake, Liberty, Sandy Lake, Springfield, Wolf Creek and Worth; and the boroughs of Grove City, Jackson Center, Mercer, Sandy Lake and Stoneboro;
- Venango County;
- Barkeyville borough and Irwin Township;
- Butler County; and
- Harrisville borough and Marion and Mercer townships.
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