NEW WATERFORD — The village has halted its EMS services and is in talks with neighboring areas for EMS coverage.

Village Council discussed the matter during the Tuesday meeting.

Mayor Shane Patrone said New Waterford has temporarily suspended its ambulance service largely as a result of funding and manpower shortages.

“It’s an issue for many EMS providers in the area. Currently the area ambulance services are helping to cover. Northstar has helped by picking up a lot of the village calls,” he said.

He added the village has discussed the matter with the Columbiana and East Palestine departments as well as Northstar ambulance about the situation moving forward.

“The village is trying to find the best way to cover our residents and residents in the surrounding area,” he said.

As for residents, they should dial 911 if they find themselves in an emergency situation, he added.

The halting of services affected temporary part-time positions, meaning no one lost their jobs.

Patrone said the majority of the village’s EMTs already work full-time for other departments.

“Our EMS people all work full time jobs. That is a large part of the issue with EMS. Many departments staff or fill in with EMT’s who already work full time in EMS,” he said.

The change comes just under a year after New Waterford stepped up to provide EMS coverage for the neighboring communities on weekends in order to fill gaps in response.

The EMS department worked on a strictly volunteer on-call availability and in June of last year began staffing a two-person EMS crew Friday evening through Monday morning.

They were paid a minimum of 2 hours per shift, with a shift lasting six hours. If they received a transport call they were paid the full six hours.

At that time Patrone cautioned that the new staffing would last as long as financially possible.

Money to cover the cost came from insurance billing.