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Muncie City Council to vote on EMS ordinance Monday

<p>Muncie Fire Department introduced an ordinance at the Muncie City Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 4, 2017, that would allow for the fire department to make EMS runs inside of the city. The ordinance was sent to a committee for review and will be voted on Monday, Jan. 8, 2018. <strong>Andrew Smith, DN Photo</strong></p>

Muncie Fire Department introduced an ordinance at the Muncie City Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 4, 2017, that would allow for the fire department to make EMS runs inside of the city. The ordinance was sent to a committee for review and will be voted on Monday, Jan. 8, 2018. Andrew Smith, DN Photo

After an ordinance to add fire-based EMS to the Muncie Fire Department was introduced in December 2017, the Muncie City Council will vote on the ordinance at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

The vote, which was rescheduled from Jan. 1, will decide if MFD will provide EMS to the City of Muncie, or if Delaware County EMS will continue to provide emergency medical services. 

RELATED: Muncie Fire Department introduces EMS ordinance

If passed, the ordinance would make MFD responsible for:

  • Non-emergency basic life support services
  • Emergency basic life support services 
  • Non-emergency, advanced life support one services 
  • Advance two life support services

Adding fire-based EMS would increase response times, said MFD Chief Eddie Bell, and because of the location of the seven fire stations, they could respond to calls in two-to-three minutes. 

MFD would add six ambulances to all of the fire stations, except for Station 5, located near Tillotson and University avenues. 

Currently, Delaware County EMS has been providing EMS for the City of Muncie since 1977.

Some residents who spoke at the previous city council meeting Dec. 4 expressed concern. 

“As Joe Q citizen, the everyday observer and taxpayer, to hear the RFPs are going to be distributed later this week without the information being the top of mind and be able to be shared with us, suggests to me that folks are pretty sure how this decision was going to go,” said one resident who spoke at the Dec. 4 council meeting. 

Contact Andrew Smith with comments at ajsmith15@bsu.edu or on Twitter at@AndrewSmithNews.

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