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COLUMBIANA -- The city of Columbiana has decided that a consolidation of the fire and EMS departments will position the emergency services for long-term sustainability.
The city announced via a press release on Friday that the decision is being made following a comprehensive independent assessment of both departments' operations, staffing, and long-term service capacity.
The city initiated the study through McGrath Consulting Group Inc. in January after first creating a committee to look at the safety services with the intent of solving service issues with both departments, City Manager Lance Willard said when contacted about the change.
According to the press release the city felt that a proactive structured approach was the best way to meet increasing call volumes and demands for fire and emergency medical response -- the latter of which are continuing to evolve.
Consolidation is the best path to providing reliable, high-quality service for residents for years to come, the release stated.
Specifically, the consolidated Fire-EMS Department will bring administration, training, staffing, and operations under unified leadership, allowing the city to reduce duplicated functions, improve coordination between fire suppression and emergency medical response, and invest more directly in frontline service, the city said.
"This is about strengthening a system that residents depend on, before strain becomes a crisis," Willard said in the release. "Our Fire and EMS personnel have shown real dedication to this community. Consolidation gives them a more sustainable structure to work within clearer leadership, more consistent staffing, and better long-term planning so they can keep doing that work well into the future."
Willard also said when contacted that Columbiana is the only EMS in the area that is separate from the fire department.
There are currently 30 people on the EMS roster and 20 on the fire roster.
All staff will be retained through the change that will occur in phases.
The first of the phases is community and staff engagement, records and policy review, and planning, following structural integration, a compensation study, and facility and equipment planning. The city will share updates with both departments' personnel, residents and City Council throughout the process, according to the release.
Furthermore, employees will have the option to pursue cross-training across both disciplines as opposed to being required, with additional compensation for those who choose to do so. Only future new hires will be required to certify in both Fire and EMS at entry level.
Willard said the idea is to eventually have full-time people at the station that are cross trained to provide better service for the community and will be supplemented by volunteers.
He also said the city is still in the process of determining what the final structure of the consolidation will look like, specifically with regard to leadership, or who staff will answer to under the unified department.
However, the city has already implemented one of the consultant's recommendations, which was to outsource its EMS billing.
That change was implemented on May 1, with billing now handled by Medicount.
The city said in the release that the plan also calls for modernized training documentation, improvement plans, a formal staffing model aligned with national volunteer and combination-department standards, and a strengthened approach to succession planning ensuring the department is built to last beyond any single leader or generation of personnel.
"We know change like this takes time to get right," Willard said. "We're committed to an open, phased process that involves our Fire and EMS personnel every step of the way, so the department that comes out of this reflects the best of both."
Willard also said that a consolidated department will open the door for more grant funding opportunities, including the SAFER grant.
SAFER stands for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response and the grants provide funding to hire new staff, train emergency personnel, improve equipment or help with financial assistance.