I heard that the City only thought half of the county should have EMS service. Is this true?
This is not true.
In the summer of 2015, Atchison County purchased a building at 10443 US 59 to house County EMS. City Officials were contacted by citizens that were concerned about increased EMS response times within the City of Atchison as a result of relocating of the facility from North 3rd Street to the far southwest corner of the City.
At the August 3rd City Commission meeting, City Commissioners reviewed computer generated response time modeling that showed a significant increase in response times for a majority of city residents. As a result, the Atchison City Commission voted unanimously (5-0) to adopt Resolution 2991, imploring Atchison County to reconsider the location of the EMS building due to the adverse affect on in-city response times.
On August 18, 2016, City Commissioners and staff met with the Atchison County Commission to discuss the proposed EMS facility. City Officials asked County Commissioners if they could put together a plan to provide a combined City/County EMS service and present it at an upcoming Joint City-County Commission meeting on September 21st. County Commissioners agreed to the meeting, but wanted the presentation to occur two weeks earlier, on September 8, 2015.http://www.atchisoncountyks.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/1115?fileID=272
City staff worked quickly to meet the September 8, 2015 deadline and present the following presentation: https://prezi.com/1qqlsdv4bqih/improved-ems-service-delivery-in-atchison-county/.
Due to the limited time the City had to analyze the service options, the plan presented by City Officials included two service providers. The City of Atchison could provide EMS in the eastern district of the County for a relatively low cost of $125,000 per year. However, the modeling done by the City showed that the cost to provide the same service in the western half of the County would quadruple. Based on the City’s estimates, Tech, Inc could cover the western half of the County at a lower cost than the City. The City firmly believes that all citizens should have quality EMS service and never suggested that the western half of the County should be without service. The City simply realized that they could not service the western half of the County at a lower cost than Tech, Inc could. The City was very clear that they would be willing to provide full coverage to the western half of the County if a private contractor was unable or unwilling to do so.