The Bristol Village Board on Monday unanimously approved a contract that will bring paramedic level emergency medical service to village residents through the fire department.
The board approved a contract extension with Metro Paramedics that includes the upgrade in service.
The village has already been contracting with Metro for emergency medical services personnel to ensure someone is always available to respond to medical calls in the village since 2013. Metro had been providing personnel working at a EMT-I99 level.
With the approval of the contract, those individuals who already work for Bristol, will now be able to work as paramedics, said Chief Peter Parker. That represents a higher level of EMS care.
The cost will be about $12,000 more for the first year. However, Parker pointed out that the village’s tax levy is not increasing for 2015 despite the increase due to savings found in the fire department and throughout the village government. The board in October passed a tax levy of $927,246, the same amount as for 2014.
The original contract with Metro was due to expire in February, but the action Monday extends it to 2017.
Trustee John McCabe expressed concern about rising costs for the program of about 3 percent per year. A Metro representative said the increases are in anticipation of raising employee costs, such as insurance and pay.
“I’m just concerned about our cost going up,” McCabe said.
Trustee Carolyn Owens questioned why if a new contract for new service was being considered there was not a bidding process.
“Normally, I think we would go out for bid for something like this,” Owens said. “I guess I don’t understand why we didn’t go out for bid.”
Parker replied that the action on Monday was for a contract extension, not a new contract. Rebidding also could mean starting from scratch on the contract EMS personnel, when he has been happy with Metro and the current personnel working in Bristol.
“We want to keep the same personnel here,” Parker said.
Parker said many of the department personnel that are not part of the Metro agreement also have paramedic level training they will now be able to use.
