Alright.

Welcome to the special meeting of the Vandenberg County Board of Commissioners for May 26th.

Madeline, please call the order.

Commissioner Gable.

Commissioner Canterbury.

Here.

President and Orders.

Here.

Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

On the agenda today, we are uh the commissioners are seeking proposals for uh a county emergency medical service for 2027.

Uh we do have three proposals, uh, one being from American Medical Response AMR.

Number two, uh Emersonville Fire Department, and uh the third proposal is from the Vanderburgh County Fire Department.

Uh we would like to go in that order.

Uh, but here this morning um we will bump the Evansville Fire Department to uh the third presentation.

Uh the superintendent is uh currently in a meeting, so we Chief Knight.

Sorry, Chief Knight will is in a in a meeting currently, so we'll bide some time for him, and then if uh if he's present, uh great.

If not, he does have uh two uh uh individuals from the fire department that can fill in and present the present that information.

Uh a couple items before we begin.

Um, you know, currently right now American Medical Response AMR has uh the contract uh for uh the county and also the city limits.

Um the city has elected to start their own EMS service, and that is going to start uh July 1st.

The uh map here, and I did print out a few back there just for reference.

Uh currently uh the Vanderburgh County uh fire department has uh or does cover areas in the townships of Almstrong, Scott, German, and the town of Darmstadt, and um the areas or the townships that uh need service going forward, uh, are Perry Union and parts of center township.

So we are going to allow for those presentations, and we're gonna give each group uh roughly 10 minutes or so.

Uh there could be some back and forth or questions from the commissioners, and then at the end I want to give the opportunity as we stated in our public announcement to the media to our residents.

Is that give them an opportunity to come up and voice any concerns or if they have any questions, they will have that opportunity at the end.

Um with each proposal, obviously some very important things that we're looking at.

Obviously, number one is service, uh location of where this is going to occur, the location of the ambulances cost, and what kind of contract are we looking at?

So those were the big four things that I'm gonna be looking at going into this uh proposal, and then um finally at the end, um, when we conclude our meeting, we will have uh further negotiations.

Uh obviously, this is a uh there's a funding piece to this, so we'll be uh obviously talking to our friends on county council as well, and then um we'll likely see another important meeting for the commissioners to hash out all these negotiations and details, and then the final decision uh will be made by the commissioners at June at the June 16th meeting, which is our first meeting in June.

So just wanted to kind of lay that groundwork uh before we begin.

Commissioners, is there anything else that I did not mention?

You get good to go.

I'm good to go.

I just want to preface this meeting by stating to all parties how impressed we are with your presentations and the information you've given us and the um arguments you've given us, and I know it's coming out now in the public, but it's helped the commissioners to to this date.

Of course, we're not there yet, so thank you.

And I would just add I think it's important for uh the community to understand that we're not just looking at this today at the beginning.

We've been talking about this as well since um the city made decisions to to make the change, but I just wanted to make sure that the work has not just is not beginning today, it's been going on for for several several months and and having these discussions and and talking through what this looks like and uh knowing that we had through the end of the year to have the current contract fulfilled.

Okay.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Uh let's go ahead and begin first on the uh list is American Medical Response AMR, you may come forward.

He's getting around.

Before you begin, I do want to make note.

I think it's important we do have two county council members in here.

Uh County Council member Han and Acarino.

Appreciate you guys being here.

Guys, maybe in.

Excellent.

So I'm Paul Phillips.

I am the regional director for AMR of Evansville, and with me I have Lee Turpin, who is the operations manager for AMR of Evansville.

And first off, I just wanted to say thank you all for the opportunity to present our proposal to you all, and uh just to kind of lay out our case for the quality that we present, and then also just the coverage that we're going to provide.

Um I guess there we go.

Those pictures always look a whole lot better than they do in person.

Sorry about that.

So we wanted to kind of lay out our history of service here to Vandenberg County, and uh, you know, some of that I'm not gonna read the entire timeline to you because you know that would that would be a while.

But we've been in service here with our predecessor organizations for a little over 105 years, and that's a proud history we have with the county, and we're we're really happy that we've been able to continuously serve the county through that time.

Um wanted to point out a couple of things.

One was 1989 there.

If you see that on the timeline, is our first EMD class.

So that when we talk about EMD, it's emergency medical dispatch, it's where calls are questioned and then prioritized according to patient acuity, whether or not it's a it's a serious injury versus a not so serious injury, all withstanding that everything, every call to every patient is as serious as it's gonna get, but uh sometimes they're they're lower acuity.

And then also in 97, we were one of the first agencies in the state, if not the first agency, to become accredited with the EMD through priority dispatch, and that's a pretty proud moment as well because that's a benchmark.

They set a pretty high uh benchmark for the dispatch centers.

Um, and then in 2014, we began voluntarily participating in the care cardiac arrest registry, as well as the mission lifeline, which measures your cardiac and stroke and uh your cardiac arrest outcomes, and we have consistently through that 11 and 12 years been uh among the the highest in the state and nationally, including they just presented the 2025 data, and we were again among the top in the nation, and that's a another proud uh piece for us as well.

Some of some of our clinical achievements, and you you touched on it, uh Commissioner Elfers, is the the clinical piece, like the the patient care.

So, one of the things that we do is we do a comprehensive quality improvement.

We review almost every call that we have, especially the higher acuity ones, and measure whether or not we've done a great job.

Sometimes we we recognize like we could do better, there's always room for improvement, which is the improvement piece of that.

So one of the things that we also want to propose is, you know, if we were to continue on in the county, is whole blood administration.

A lot of times when you're when you're out in the county, you have extended transport times, and you're in a situation where you're losing blood, that can be restored with the administration of the whole blood on the scene rather than waiting until you get to the hospital to try to fix the issue.

That can buy you a good deal of time when you're in the in the situation.

So that was one of the big things that we wanted to prove.

We were uh we're in the midst of costing that out, and it's not the the benefit way outweighs the the uh output.

So we we've got a map on the next slide, and I'm gonna let Lee speak to the to the you know specific uh heat maps that we've got to kind of lay out where we're gonna uh stage the trucks and why.

But I did want to say one of our one of the key pieces to our proposal is that we're dedicating three trucks to the county strategically located.

They will not be uh subject to other calls uh whether if we add on business, those three trucks stay dedicated to the county.

So if we go and pick up a nursing home contract, those still remain as part of the county.

I wanted to make that really clear.

And then one of the things that we're really proud of is our disaster response.

Um, through the years, we've been uh a huge help.

I will I'm I'm a Kentucky native, still live in Kentucky, and one of the things that I was most proud of after I came to AMR a few years ago was the Mayfield tornado, probably four years ago.

And Commissioner Canterbury, that's around your your home area.

So one of the things that uh I was most proud of in that moment was pulling up and seeing the AMR trucks there, and I didn't realize at the time that those would come from Evansville.

So this is you know, a couple of easily couple two and a half hours from here, and they were there for like three days.

And I will tell you that the Kentucky Board of EMS was incredibly appreciative of the fact that someone had come from another state to help sustain the 911 system in the Mayfield area.

Another thing that I wanted to highlight also was the possibility of co-branding.

If you all were so interested, um we would be happy to entertain the thought or uh to collaborate and even co-brand our trucks with the county, whether it be your logo or however you all wanted to handle that.

But we wanted to offer offer up that opportunity as well to co-brand the trucks.

And I'm gonna let Lee speak to the last point because this is more about deployment and the system status management that we offer.

System status management is basically where we put the trucks at whatever moment.

We we have data that shows us, hey, in this moment we need to be in this area, and that's just historical data that really lets us dial in on where when and where we have trucks in certain spaces.

So I'll let Lee speak to that.

So just on the purposes of system status management, normally in larger urban settings, this is constantly moving the trucks around to be closer to the call volume by hour of day.

This is more of a geographic plan, but we have taken and put the call volume for the last several years into the map and looked at where the heat spots are with this and the drive times.

So we know that if we were going to cover this adequately, volume-wise, there's really not enough volume to keep three trucks busy, but geographically it cannot be done without three trucks to be able to have a decent response time to those individuals that are within the parameters of evidence-based medicine.

So we know that we're gonna have to have a unit somewhere in the vicinity of USI.

There is a large heat spot there for the high acuity runs, as well as some areas that you see mainly over toward the eastern side of center of township and just the other side of 41 to the east.

Having that third truck right in the center also allows it to have a lower run volume in that area, but also be a second truck in when calls come in to the east or to the west and reducing that drive time.

So we know the other two units have to be somewhere in the arena of Petersburg Road, up near on the hill at McCutcheonville, and the other one needs to be fairly close to where McCutcheonville Station 10 is on North St.

Joe.

So we've pretty much strategically figured out that's where those trucks need to be stationed.

We've also taken these maps dynamically, they're in your proposal, and also structured them for proposals.

Like what it what does it look like when the west side truck goes out.

What does it look like for drive times from the other stations and for every scenario that you would see there with the three units?

Thanks, Lee.

So let's get to the numbers and the money, of course.

And our subsidy ask is 1.87 million.

We are also, I want to be very clear we're looking for other opportunities to kind of spread out some of our fixed costs.

That's why we're proposing maybe a quarterly review with the county so that we can possibly reduce that subsidy.

It would not go up.

We would also we would just look at the opportunities to lower it through a quarterly review so that you know, as we as we get more business, we could spread out some of those fixed costs and reduce the burden on the county.

Um is that that's an annual amount is in this proposal?

Yes, and and I do want to add that we would not expect that that would start until January 1.

We could continue on the remainder of 2026 without the subsidy, so that would begin in uh 2027.

Okay.

I do want to add, and we noted I'm sorry.

So in that um to that comment, the existing contract we're in right now ends 1231.

Is that pricing for 27 is I guess we're I guess the question is is it reliant on a new signature of a contract or uh we we're making sure that we do have services from AMR through the end of this year, currently, regardless, so there is a provision in the contract that if we were to lose the count the city contract, which obviously we are, we could cancel the contract.

We're not we we have to serve certain notices, which is the warr notice.

So it would definitely be a 60-day notice before that happened.

We don't plan on doing that.

I would rather not do that.

I would rather continue on serving the county and then paper a new contract for 2027, but that's you know that's some of that's dependent upon what happens here.

So just to clarify that, so you what you're saying is your AMR's request to for the 2027 contract, they're making the remainder of 2026 contingent upon receiving that 2027 forward contract, not necessarily.

There would have to be some negotiation in there, but I'm not I can't say that we that at some point we wouldn't cancel the contract because of the having to leave the city without having business going forward, and if we have to serve those notices, we're gonna lose staff at that point too.

So it becomes problematic to continue on the way it is.

But you mentioned the staff aspect uh since the city's decision, have you lost staff members?

Definitely.

Yeah, we've we've it's it's hit us pretty hard because and I completely understand it from our staff standpoint.

I mean, they have to provide for their families, so they're gonna go wherever they can, you know, feed their families, and justifiably so.

And we currently do have the full-time staffing for this plan, yes.

Yeah, yeah, we wouldn't there wouldn't be any need to bring on additional staff where we would be staffed up to continue on for the remainder.

Uh the three ambulances that you're proposing, uh, are these 24-hour ambulances?

24 7.

Yes.

You may continue.

Well, honestly, I was just gonna point out while we are a national organization and we are uh a large organization which provides a lot of resources.

We the the people that work for us are generally people that you see at the store.

Do your kids play ball with them, you see them at church, like they're the same people.

Like, yes, we are a national organization, but we are uh we're we're locally uh staffed.

So I just wanted to point that out.

Because a lot of people think that because we're a national company, we're flying people in from Colorado to work here and um certain on a certain occasions we feel like we need to, but uh that is few and far between, which is again the strength of having the resources that we do.

And then I you know, you guys started, but any more questions?

If we think of anything, we'll obviously we can pull you back, pull you back up at the end here.

So thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next up uh is uh Vanderburgh County Fire.

You may come up.

Do you guys have copies of our proposal?

We do.

Okay.

Good morning.

How are you?

Doing good.

We'll give it a quick second, see if this pops up.

If not, we'll uh we'll just move on without it.

Well, I can I can start talking, and when it pops up, if there's any questions, we can uh go back to it.

This though.

So I guess for the record, um I'm Adam Frar, I'm the fire chief for the Vanderburgh County Fire Department.

Um over the last year or so, we've had conversations regarding what we provide currently throughout Vanderburgh County.

Um as it was stated earlier, the Vanderburgh County Fire Department is operated under the Scott Township trustees office as the fiscal agent, they're the provider unit for the Scott Fire Territory that includes Scott Township, Armstrong Township, German Township, and the town of Darmstadt.

So we provide ALS transport for those for that geographical area already.

Um and our proposal in front of you would be to expand that service to the remaining parts of the county, including center township out, Perry, and Union Township.

So like I said, um we work under the legal name of the Scott Township trustees office.

Um that would be who with the official agreement would be with if so was to happen.

Chief R.

I already have a question.

Yes.

Under your existing territory, that funding piece, how does that work?

Okay.

So in a fire territory, there is an additional tax that is put on the tax bills for the residents that live within the fire territory.

So for Scott Armstrong, German in the town of Darmstadt, they have a fire territory tax, which is considered a special district.

Um that tax rate is only within that geographical area, and that's what funds the EMS and fire protection that covers that geographical area.

So those residents pay an additional tax on top of the regular county tax to have that protection and that coverage within their their area.

So we uh we currently staff four fire stations uh 24 hours.

Seven days a week.

See if it pops up.

Could you go a little further?

Do you have uh is there like a percentage for that?

Percentage as in the tax rate, yeah.

Um that tax rate for 2026, don't quote me, but I believe it's around 42 cents on the hundred is what our current tax rate is for the fire territory that the residents pay.

Gotcha.

Yes.

My boss said that should be accurate.

So on a hundred thousand dollars.

A hundred dollars.

Okay.

Assessed valuation, gotcha.

Yep.

That includes fire.

That is fire and EMS, yes.

We we provide both.

Um our current ambulances are both cross-staffed with firefighter and EMS workers, whether they be EMTs or paramedics, and then we have two fire engines that are staffed, one being an ALS engine with a paramedic on it, one being just a standard fire engine that most of the time has a paramedic, but it's not certified as that.

Any other questions on that?

No, okay.

So, like I was gonna say, um, we currently staff four fire stations.

Uh we have one in Daylight, one on Baseline Road, one in the town of Darmstadt, and then one at St.

Wendell Road and Highway 65.

There is a fifth fire station within our fire territory on Cassen Drive that is not currently staffed as of today.

We have currently have four staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week paramedic ambulances.

And like I said, we do have two dedicated engine companies.

So similar to the first proposal, you are proposing an additional three uh 24-7 ambulance.

Yep.

Okay.

We can even go a step further, and as you can see on the map that's actually up there now, they're gonna be in the same positions.

So the red dots are what we currently have that is our fire territory and where our stations are staffed right now.

The blue dots is where we propose to add ambulances.

So one somewhere close to USI, somewhere along St.

Joe Avenue, close to McCutcheaville's Fire Station number 10, and somewhere close to McCutcheville's fire station number five on Petersburg Road is where we suggest the ambulances be placed.

So we uh we suggest um those three ambulances as well as a full-time EMS supervisor to cover those areas.

Um I don't know if I can.

Yep.

So within that, um, it gets us within our 12-minute response time goal that we would like to have anywhere in the county, as Lee stated earlier.

Um, it's a matter of the geographical coverage area in the county versus the actual run volume that is there to be able to take an ambulance from McCutcheaville and Center Township all the way to the Union Township River Bottoms is uh is a long haul no matter how you look at it.

Um, one of the things that we do have in our proposal is to utilize potentially the closest available ambulance model, which would put our ambulances on an AVL, an automated vehicle location that would also be the same as what the Evansville Fire Department ambulances run on that could potentially assist in getting ambulance quicker depending on where one of the counties or the city's ambulances might be sitting.

So, like I said, our proposal is uh three ALS ambulances plus one reserve.

Um we currently already have a reserve as well, so that would be two reserve ambulances for the entire coverage area.

Um we currently run cardiac monitored life pack 15s, they're brand new.

Um mechanical CPR devices, advanced airway equipment, portable ultrasound capability, power load stretchers, and loading devices, GPS, AVL communication, and mobile data, as well as our contracts are signed, and sometime in the very near future, our ambulances will be carrying whole blood as AMR proposed as well.

The clinical excellence and oversight.

Um, like I said, we we've provided a paramedic level EMS since 1995.

We started with non-transport, and in 96, end of 96, we end up 97 we started transporting.

Um that started just in Scott Township with Armstrong as a contract, and we've expanded from there.

That was with one ambulance at the time.

Um Ascension St.

Vincent Evansville has served as our ALS supervising hospital for the entire process over 30 years.

The proposal that we have in front of you includes you know evidence-based protocols, continuous clinical oversight, and ongoing education.

Um the audit review cycle that was mentioned before is the same process that we go through.

All of our runs get reviewed either by our EMS chief as well as peers, and then also our supervising hospital.

And like I said, the recent contract with the American Red Cross to provide whole blood is already signed.

Moving forward, just waiting for all the I's to be dot and the T's to be crossed to be able to put it on our trucks.

All the equipment has been purchased already as well.

One of the other things that we'll have, um, implementing the nurse navigation line with Central Dispatch, that's one of the items that's come along with Evansville, providing service that it will be integrated into our dispatch center.

I believe there's something of that nature provided now, but this this particular one will be integrated with our 911 dispatch center.

Just a highlight of the the quality assurance focus areas that we currently have, and we'll continue to have our recognitions um ALS provider of the year for 2014 2016 2024 and 2025 uh the American Heart Association uh mission lifeline silver and bronze for the last couple years and then we actively participate in the EMS leadership district 10 EMS managers group and district 10 healthcare coalition so the dollars and cents where we uh we differ a little bit is our dollars and cents aren't internal because like we stated before our current geographical coverage area the residents that live within that pay an additional tax for those those services and those units to be sitting there so ours um has a startup cost that's included um of 1.5 million that would be to buy all the equipment to get it on the road and get it up and running and then an annual subsidy of around the 1.5 but can fluctuate based upon revenue cycle and how much is brought in so we we estimate around 1.6 with our billing company to generate revenue that will offset the the cost of operation but like I said we can't use current resources as a hundred percent 100% of the time and then the money that comes in that currently operates our fire territory can't be used to expand outside one of the things to highlight the difference in the proposal before was three ambulances our proposal is three additional ambulances like I stated we have four already in operation that would be available for a backup and need be as well as our willingness to uh to be AVL located and do you closest dispatch utilization if possible our community engagement anybody that follows our social media can see that there's quite a bit of community engagement currently it's mostly within our fire territory but we do expand out we've been present at other things in the county different open houses different events we've uh we participated in McCutcheville Fire Department's open house for multiple years Perry Township has a couple fun days that they do that we participate as well as their Halloween bash that they do every they've done the last few years at the AMC theater on the west side that's very well attended any questions before I can think of something else.

Anything else left in the presentation too far I do have a general question.

Yes sir um as far as your EMTs uh where if you get three more units where do you satisfy the need for those workers how do you get those workers or is there pretty easy now competition wise to get people to staff the ambulances or do you have to reach out to other areas?

Um so just for for note there's a national shortage of paramedics.

EMTs there are more that are available to come work at different places but as for as far as paramedics there is a shortage so anybody that's gonna stand up here and tell you that uh we can go out tomorrow we can grab those paramedics we can have on a truck the next day is probably not telling the full truth the best we would be able to do is to advertise that we're gonna cover that cover this area and this is what we're looking for and see what we get to apply.

Locally I'll tell you that there's a lot of moving around when it comes to EMS they'll a lot of people will work at one service jump to another jump to another and it's it can be a revolving door.

I would be happy to say that currently our current staff, the question was asked earlier.

None of our current staff is leaving us as of today to go to the Evansville Fire Department for their their service that's being started shortly.

Thank you.

The one thing I want to add at the end is is this this particular proposal, as I stated that the McCutchville fire stations and the Perry Township stations area would be where we would like to put our ambulances.

This is strictly an EMS coverage.

There is no fire coverage that comes with this this.

This is 100% EMS outside of our current fire territory.

Chief, a question for you.

So you're looking at it, at least your your proposal says that there's $3.2 million annual operating expenses.

But with that, if the townships were to pass that tax increase to cover EMS services, what would that reduce your over?

I mean, from the county anyway, what would that reduce your overall number annual operating expenses too?

Do you know?

So to clarify, um, the only way that that would happen would be is if there is the willingness from the township trustees of those areas to start the conversation.

That conversation does not start by us, it starts from them.

If they would like to start that conversation, we would be happy to sit down and talk about it.

If it's financially feasible for those areas to join the fire territory, then the tax rate would be set to cover that, and it would be uh it would be a zero for the county at that point because it would be part of the territory.

So if Perry Township and Center Township was to join the fire territory at some point, then whenever those conversations are had, then the tax rate for the fire territory would be set to provide the level of coverage that is needed.

So the subsidy would go away and essentially it would operate how it is now for your existing territory.

Correct.

If that if that was to happen sometime in the future, yes.

So are we saying it's population based by township?

You're saying that it would cover it, but so it's not as it's tax rate-based, it's off of property taxes.

So that rate that I gave you earlier, 42 cents would fluctuate based on what was needed to provide the coverage that was requested as the them joining the fire territory if that was to happen.

Thank you.

Good question, Ryan.

Any other questions for Chief Farrar?

Commissioners.

I see none.

Thank you, Chief Farr.

Thank you.

Yep.

Next up, Evansville Fire Department.

Oh, good morning, while she's getting everything set up.

I'm Jared Brown, deputy chief of finance and logistics for the Evansville Fire Department.

Uh with me is Deputy Chief Kane.

He is the EMS chief, so he's gonna be here to answer some of your questions that you may have regarding specifically the service provided by EMS.

Um at any point, please feel free to jump in as you have before.

We'll be glad to answer any questions that you have.

I'm gonna go ahead and start.

I know you all have a copy, but just strictly for the record so that uh everyone can hear.

Um, with our summary of the Evansville Fire Department, the Evansville Fire Department respectfully submits this proposal in response to Vanderburgh County RFQ 2026-03 for emergency medical service coverage within the portions of Center Township, Perry Township, and Union Township.

The Evansville Fire Department is uniquely positioned to provide immediate, reliable and financially sustainable ambulance service coverage to these areas through a fully integrated fire-based EMS system.

Unlike systems that require startup appropriations, facility construction, subsidies, or additional taxation, the Evansville Fire Department already possesses the infrastructure, staffing model, dispatch integration, command structure, fleet deployment capability, and regional public safety relationships necessary to implement this service without delay.

Beginning July 1, 2026, the Evansville will trade EFD excuse me, will transition to a fully city operated ambulance trans transport system, integrating ALS ambulance transport into existing fire operations.

This operational transition creates the Vanderburgh County, creates the opportunity to extend dependable ambulance coverage into the unincorporated portions of Vanderburgh County while maintaining a unified regional emergency response model.

This proposal is built around several core principles maintaining uninterrupted ambulance coverage throughout Vanderburgh County, maximizing the use of existing public safety infrastructure, improving coordination between emergency responders, and delivering high-quality ALS medical care without requiring direct county or township subsidies.

EFD believes emergency medical services function most efficiently when integrated with a coordinated public safety framework focused on operational reliability and patient outcomes rather than profitability.

The Evansville Fire Department, just to give you guys a brief history about the Evansville Fire Department.

We're career, municipal fire department providing fire suppression, rescue operations, hazardous materials response, disaster management, emergency medical first response, and coordinated public safety operations throughout the Evansville metropolitan area.

Evansville fire department currently maximized maintains extensive operational coordination with Vanderburgh County Central Dispatch, local hospitals, township fire departments, law enforcement agencies, emergency management, and surrounding mutual aid partners.

ELFD already provides contracted services within the unincorporated portions of Knight Township and Pigeon Township and has a long-standing operational relationships throughout the county.

These existing relationships allow for seamless interoperability between city and county emergency services systems.

The department's operational footprint, staffing levels, and deployment model already place EMS resources near the proposed coverage area.

This is a significant advantage compared to systems that would need to build infrastructure, lease facilities, hire entirely new staffing models, and seek public subsidy to support operations.

I'm gonna go into a little bit more depth with that when we talk about our staffing.

So we recently hired uh 22 paramedics and 22 EMTs.

We had no shortage of people asking for a job for the Evanstal Fire Department.

We had 22 great candidates.

We had 55 actual great candidates apply for the paramedic position alone.

So we had more than a two-to-one ratio of applicants to hires.

So we do not have a problem with recruiting staff to build our system.

In addition, the benefits of that and maintaining that staffing is those employees will be in the pension system.

So that allows uh, as anybody knows who knows what a public pension is, that people don't often quit a department that has a public pension to go somewhere that doesn't.

So this allows us to not only hire with a great salary, great benefits, uh, great culture that we have at the Evansville Fire Department, but also maintain them with a great retirement.

The Evansville Fire Department has a 30 138 years of experience providing emergency and disaster response, fire suppression, rescue services, hazardous materials response, emergency medical services.

I already said that, didn't I?

Excuse me.

I got a little ahead of myself, I apologize.

The Evansville Fire Department is comprised of 320 sworn and fire fire and EMS employees, supported by 10 fazilian administrative and maintenance employees.

These sworn emergency responders work on one on of three 24-hour shifts.

Each shift is comprised of 100 personnel operating from one of Evansville's 14 fire stations.

The minimum staff for any given shift is 84 personnel, including instant commanders and safety officers.

This number guarantees that instant command and safety officer are available for two for the two battalions while ensuring a minimum of four personnel on each fire apparatus and two personnel on each EMS apparatus.

That is one paramedic and one EMT.

The department is overseen by a single fire chief and divided into five sections: operations, EMS, finance and logistics, support services, and administration.

Each section is directed by one of one deputy chief that oversees day-to-day oversight and general strategic planning.

And there's a table attached if you guys like to check that out as well.

I'm gonna let Chief Kane speak a little bit more about the experience of Evansville Fire Department when it comes to EMS.

The Evansville Fire Department possesses the operational infrastructure staffing model, command structure, and deployment capabilities necessary to provide EMS ambulance services today.

The proposed service areas include a combination of urban fringe environments, suburban residential areas, rural response zones, and low density remote areas.

EFD currently operates with a similar operational environments throughout Vanderburgh County and the unincorporated areas of Knight Township and Pigeon Township.

All of our operations comply with Indiana Department of Home IN EMS regulations, Indiana EMS Commission requirements, NFPA standards, HIPAA requirements, OSHA requirements, and federal and state EMS licensing.

I'll let you guys read the layout of our strategic plan with uh with our apparatus deployment.

Um as you'll see, we currently won't require to uh to achieve the times necessary, won't require us to inhabitate any fire stations out in the county or ask for any subsidies to support that role.

Um I'll let Chief Kane talk a little bit about the deployment model and then we'll get into some AVL and some things like that.

Again, because of our infrastructure that's already there, we will not have to add any fire stations or EMS stations out in the county for the west side, which would be Perry Township and Union Township.

The their first response ambulance would come from our station on St.

Joe and Maryland, and 80% of the time we would have less than a 10-minute response time in that area into the center township area, which is covered right now by McCutcheonville, that would be covered by our station on St.

Joe and Mill Road for their west side, and the station at Keystone, which behind Applebee's on Morgan Avenue, would cover their east side.

And again, 80% of the time, we would be there in less than 10 minutes.

Go ahead.

Yeah, with that response time, we want to uh mention as well that we have been working with and have purchased the AVL system uh through Central Square that allows us to have an auto vehicle location, so it doesn't matter necessarily where that ambulance will be positioned as far as station assignment, it will always select the closest ambulance to your need to answer your needs.

Um Chief, real quick, just yeah, just a follow-up on that.

So 80% of the time, there's an expectation that it'd be 10 minutes or less.

What about the other 20%?

What's the expectation on response time?

I believe it's going to be a 14-minute response.

Uh if we have to send a truck that is not the west side truck, their next due truck would be coming out of downtown.

We'll have two station two units stationed at station one to cover the west side.

For the north side, the northwest side, it will be a second truck coming out of station eight, which close to the old North High School.

And for the east side, the next due truck would be coming out of station six, which is Arcadian Highway, with the control plan for it to be moved closer to uh St.

Mary's Hospital.

And it as you guys want to.

If you guys look at your um one of your late pages in your graph, it actually shows a response area.

Um this is leaning more towards the Union Township area where we have some unincorporated area.

While we mention Union Township, one of the things that what we uh we find necessary in areas of the county, specifically, you know, rural areas like Union Township is the capabilities of our apparatus reaching the patient.

Uh we know that we've had a lot of ambulances last year that got stuck in the snow and and things like that.

Um our eleven ambulances that we purchase are all four-wheel drive chassis that allow us to go pretty much anywhere in the county through a vast majority of weather events that that any any normal vehicle would versus a van style or bus style ambulance.

Um the uh the six go back to that map.

Yeah.

If you wouldn't mind the six ambulances that are 24-7, and then there's two that are 12-hour.

Yes, so current currently are the 12 hours.

Currently Medic 17 uh on Mill Road will be assigned as a 12-hour unit.

Now that that can vary the very top one is a 12 hour yes.

Yes.

Now the that is because of the the heat mapping in that area and the and the run needs in that area.

Now, as those needs shift, we're strategically positioned to make that a 24-hour truck.

That will not be a difficult.

And then where's the other 12-hour one?

Station one currently because the heat mapping in that area requires a 12 and a 24-hour truck.

And where is that on the map?

That is down in that downtown.

Southeast 8th Street.

Yeah.

Downtown.

Okay.

And with our eight units that are again the two that are 12-hour trucks.

We are we are positioned, should we need to reposition those apparatus?

That is that is a evolving thing.

That is not something that should we take over an area of the county and and the station at Keystone need a second ambulance to cover the east side of the county.

Then we were positioned to be able to make those adjustments.

You're starting July 1st.

Yes, sir.

Um it's May 26th.

Is all the ambulances in?

We are currently there finishing the last five currently.

Okay.

We have six in.

We're supposed to pick up three more at the end of this week or first of next week.

So we'll have nine of the eleven then.

Okay.

Um so yeah, so we're very well on our way to get those all the rest of the equipment is in, uh, and it's currently getting installed on the ambulances that we do have.

And the staffing is the staffing actually started orientation today.

Um, it's going to be a staggered orientation because what we wanted to ensure because we want to be a good community partner, is that we don't want to deplete other services like AMR or any of our neighboring other uh counties that we that we were able to get employees from.

Um we don't want those team members to leave their current place of work until we're ready to take take flight with our system.

Uh we want them to continue to serve their community and ensure that we have a viable ambulances out there on the road responding.

So we are working around their schedule, their full-time schedules to where we can we're doing their orientation on their days off to allow them to keep working until we go live with our system.

Any other questions before we say any more?

Okay.

Um, a couple quick talking points about this.

Um our proposal is built around a simple principle provide the highest level of emergency medical response while placing the least possible financial and operational burden on township taxpayers or county taxpayers.

Our proposal is unique because it is designed to be a financially self-sustaining through patient building revenue rather than a tax township taxation.

So uh no disrespect to the the Vandenberg County fire.

Uh, but we would not require uh a tax uh joint of territory or anything like that to provide this service.

We would not require any sort of subsidy.

Um this is something that is 100% service-based.

And in addition to that, we offer a program called Rescue Shield, which is a it basically fills the gap of what your insurance or Medicare Medicaid doesn't pay.

You're able to subscribe to this.

Uh, believe AMR uh Arivax, some other other companies have this program.

We've actually opened it up to the county already.

So if they're your county, your county residents come into the city and require our services, it helps fill that gap so they don't have they're not out a few thousand dollars if you know the insurance doesn't pay the whole part of the bill.

So we're already trying to be a good neighbor to our county citizens.

Um, importantly, is this a yearly subscription?

Yes, sir.

And what is the charge?

What's the cost?

Uh 95 dollars per house.

89 dollars per house.

Thank you.

Uh importantly, our financial projections were developed using the actual payer mix found in Vandenberg County.

More than 49% of the population is either covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or has no insurance at all.

We are not assuming a commercially insured population that does not exist, even under those conservative conditions.

The system we've built remains financially sustainable.

Our commitment to partnering with the township governments is well established.

The Evansville Fire Department is already contractor provider, emergency services for residents of Knight Township and Pigeon Township outside the city limits.

We are the only proposal that does not require township or to construct new facilities, expand utilities, subsidize operations, or purchase infrastructure or assume new f financial risk.

We currently operate uh the response network, supervisory structure, communication systems, deployment model, and emergency service infrastructure necessary to successfully deliver service.

Uh throughout the Vanderburgh County area.

This is not a theoretical system or a future concept, it is a functioning system that exists today.

In early 2025, uh just a little keynote of some reach we had a uh a reach out.

Um, member of the center township advisory board.

We develop um asked that we develop and presented a proposal uh to provide full-time fire protection ambulance service to center township.

That proposal would have delivered around the clock fire and EMS coverage, including ambulance station on the Petersburg Road, would have absorbed all their full-time staff into the EFD, increasing their pay benefits and providing a state pension without increasing taxpayer cost above what was already being paid for by a paid volunteer fire department that does not provide EMS transport.

Although that proposal was ultimately denied by the trustee it demonstrates our longstanding willingness and ability to provide efficient cost effective emergency services to township residents.

So we're willing to put our money where our mouth is is what we're saying.

Likewise Evansville announced the creation of its municipal EMS system Perry Township officials approached us and asked whether we could provide ambulance service for their township.

That request was supported by the Perry Township's contracted fire department and by the Perry Township trustee.

Commissioner Canterbury was informed of those discussions during the meeting with Perry Township leadership earlier this year.

And then I want to go a little bit further in depth on a little bit of a closing at the end of the day this decision should not be based on promises about what might be built for the end for the future it should be based on who has potential personnel, infrastructure, operational experience and financial stability the proven capability to serve these townships on day one, which we will be ready to do if you need us we are offering a fully functioning system that already exists can be easily implemented and can provide high quality service for your medical needs.

Any questions commissioner one related to the rescue shield so you've already opened that up to county residents today.

So does that mean if they subscribe they're going to get they're they're you're going to provide that ambulatory service no what that means is anyone who visits the city uh so you can live in Princeton Indiana and you can buy rescue shield and if you come to the city of Evansville you need our services and you're in a motor vehicle accident you have a medical emergency which we have a lot of visitors into our city their city and you know county residents and out of the county should you have an emergency in our area and need our ambulance service we're going to transport you just like we would any other time instead of you receiving a bill for the difference for what your insurance doesn't pay that that rescue shield covers that difference.

So anytime you need our service to make sure that was clear because I think it's a county resident if they felt like they were being offered it that they would be getting your service no no we want to make that clear that it is not our service but if you do come into the city city or if you're or if you need us for me if we're needed for mutual aid if we're called in for mutual aid into that area which likely could be a possibility given uh for Vanderburg County fire for instance with them being cross-staffed with a lot of ambulances currently until this model got up and running if they would need us if they have a fire and they would need us to come into center township if they would get the contract or if they need us to go into Vanderburg County fires area if they need us that rescue shield would cover those people if we were to be the entity to respond.

Thank you.

And part of the company that is handling our subscription service when you call in and ask they're going to ask if you are a resident of the city or in the county and if you are in the county they will explain that detail.

Yeah that's been added to their to their script to ensure that that information is passed along thoroughly.

We just want to offer them the same opportunity if they come in that they may not have a thousand dollar plus bill on top of that that that that gap is filled.

Chief Brown and Kane what would you say if uh just on a response time question if you're I mean with where you have every truck located on the map that you provided the the county commissioners do you have concerns about response time like for example if there was a run in at Burnett Park and there were more you know and the Wrights Hill ambulance was was pulled off what would you do in that circumstance to address an emergency in at Burnett Park, for example.

Well the the benefit of having the stations that we have and the infrastructure that we have in place is is we're able to easily adjust and manipulate the apparatus where they need to go.

Whether we need to develop a plan that that you know, moving forward that if we have if we're able to get the county, we have ambulances that that may reposition in different stations when one goes out on a call, we may be able to do that.

If we're needed to position ambulance in a staging location, if we need to position ambulance based off of run volume uh in an area of the county, again, we're not asking for subsidies.

We'd be willing to look at those opportunities down the road.

Should we need ambulances actually physically in those stations?

But shifting those resources is something that that we're very obviously open to doing.

And this being a new entity, we utilize the International Association of Firefighters heat mapping to position these ambulances currently.

Again, the county was not part of this discussion when this was developed, so we're showing how we can implement it.

But as we see that run data changes based off of the needs, we have three spare ambulances.

We're in a position where we can purchase another.

We can easily uh increase our our staffing at additional ambulances or shift our ambulances based off of those needs.

Are there gonna be isolated instance where there's an ambulance that takes a little bit longer to get somewhere?

100%.

Like we know that that it doesn't, there's not a service that's gonna be immune to that.

Um, but but we have the ability both financially with manpower and and just infrastructure-wise to make that shift to to look at that in the future and address those of the needs that they pop up.

I hope that answers your question.

And to add on to that, any of the other services would have the same issue if their USI truck would be out on a run, it's gonna be a lengthy response for their backup truck.

So again, I I know we've talked about no subsidies and yet how long do we feel like that?

I mean, at what point does that get reconsidered?

So we're not we're not increasing the tax rate on the citizens of Evansville at all.

We're we're we're took out a loan to purchase the equipment, the startup obviously.

You that money's got to come from somewhere, but but the the the run data, uh Chief Knight's a very analytical person, and I can assure you that he's he's he's done with worked well with our billing company, the run volume that's in the county, the payer type that's in the county, and we don't foresee there ever being a subsidy needed.

Because again, we don't have to buy more ambulances to start this.

We don't have to add on to fire stations, we don't have to hire a bunch more staff.

Um this is something that basically is runs just like a business.

The money comes in through revenue through the through the responses through the rescue shield, and it is run back right into the we're not looking to make a profit.

Um, we're here to provide a service.

Our shareholders are in the city of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, and we want to provide them the service, and and it's it's it's not about sending the money anywhere else.

Okay.

I mean, that's uh the criteria that we're looking at here as commissioners.

You got service, the number of ambulances, the cost, you know, the contract, you know, the cost is very attractive.

I mean, that's that's that's an easy one.

Uh however, I'm I'm struggling with if we move forward with you know any of these plans if we choose to go with EFD.

You know, the first uh item on here is the priority.

I mean, I think again, again, I appreciate you guys bringing the proposal, but I I truly your priority is the city limits.

I mean, that's that is your emphasis.

So I'm just I'm just putting that out there here publicly, being transparent.

I'm just concerned about the coverage if your priority is the city limits.

Absolutely, a hundred percent.

Right now, we don't have a contract other than with the city.

So our priority has to be has to lie where our contracted area is.

So should that change to the county, um that that's that's not a difficult uh adjustment to make.

Um, and if and if growth in additional ambulance is what you need and and subsidies are something you guys are interested in, that uh I can tell you it will be less than the two that we've heard already.

Um I think that's a conversation you need to have with Chief Knight and say, you know, we would like to have an animal's position here and here within the county, and and and what would it cost to do that?

Right.

I'm not gonna put number, obviously, you know.

Our our biggest thing was we wanted to say that we're here, we'll provide that service.

We already have the we already have everything in place to provide that service.

And we again I want to reiterate that we we do appreciate that.

Yes, yes, 100%.

And that and we're ready to do so.

Um, but again, you know, what when we when we sign a contract with someone, we we sign a contract with Knight Township every year.

We cover night out.

We have a fire and night out, we we we send three engines a ladder, a rescue a chief and a safety officer every single time without question.

So if we have we sign a contract, you're getting that same service.

It's it is a it is our it is our child at that point.

Like we are gonna provide you the same service we provide as citizens of Evansville if you're part of our coverage area.

Okay, commissioners anything else, uh is there another community that is similar to Evansville with the city and the county fire protection that you base this program on, or is there another city that functions like this?

Yeah, I mean, uh every every setup is a little bit like a snowflake, right?

They're all unique in their own way, just a little bit.

Uh I can tell you that the fire based EMS world is growing.

Uh we've we you know they've they've learned over time that the the fire stations of having those in an area uh already positioned is a perfect place to put the ambulances oftentimes because our fire trucks are set up to respond rather quickly.

Um I can't speak to any specifically.

Again, this is unfortunately with Chief Knight being another meeting, he's he's probably gonna have to elaborate a little further on your question.

I don't want to speak out of turn.

I can I can assure you he has he has data that he can provide and we'll have him send it.

I have mentioned that one of our meetings, yeah.

Yeah, I can I can certainly have him send that to you guys, and again, I don't want to speak for for his research and data because this is you know, again, we're we're filling in for him today, unfortunately.

So it's a great question there.

Um, are you aware of other fire department provided um communities where there's no subsidy?

But it's just seems it seems like okay.

Yeah, I mean, and then you look at um how long has AMR been running in this area with no subsidy?

And they they've been able to maintain enough of a profit that they that they've stayed here and want to stay here.

So I obviously I mean it it it's it's proof that it's it's a sustainable market.

And that's still I guess allowing for the the obviously the private pay system and yeah, okay.

Commissioners, any other questions for Evansville Fire Department?

No, I appreciate all your questions and letting us let us present here today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One question did come up.

Uh AMR, if you wouldn't mind.

Come back up to the podium.

Um thing that came up with the discussions with the other two proposals was uh Fandyburg County Fire broke down the budgetary or the cost uh to come up with that number.

Um Evansville Fire Department, their number is zero.

How did you come up with that one point eight and change for the annual cost?

We ran a performer.

I don't know I don't have all the specifics, but we can we can see if we can provide at least some of that to you.

Okay.

Would you would you all like to see the breakdown of the that that'd be great?

Again, like I said at the beginning, um there's gonna be um negotiations and we'll have a special meeting before our next meeting.

So we're gonna uh we'll have a little bit of time, but come June 16th, we're making our final decision.

Do you mind if I make a clarification as well?

So during the presentation we talked about staffing, and I do want to make the distinction that not all of our staff has left and went to EFD.

Some of them have left just because they they felt the pressure of continuing on and sustainability of of the system.

So I just wanted to make that distinction.

I didn't want you all feeling like they'd taken all of our staff away.

So they weren't leaving before all of this developed.

No, I mean some of them didn't see the you know the possibility that that there may be um an end, so they get out all together.

We were actually at our highest staffing that we've been at five years the month that the announcement was made.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, um, is there anyone uh from the public that would like to address the commissioners?

If you address the commissioners, usually say two to three minutes.

Sheriff Robinson?

Be very brief with some impromptu remarks.

Um Noel Robinson, Venomber County Sheriff's Office.

I want to applaud the Evansville Fire Department.

They have their undertaking has been nothing short of miraculous, and I have been vocal in supportive of EFD's efforts to create their own ambulance service to serve the city of Evansville, and uh Chief Tony Knight should be commended on the plan that he's implemented to do just that.

They've also been extremely generous in their offer to uh help the county out in this uh this timing where we find ourselves in need of an ambulance service potentially out in the county.

However, I've spent the last 25 years of my career working out into the county in some of the further flung areas where response time is the primary factor, and it's painful.

It's painful to have to stand next to someone who you know is suffering a medical emergency, and the the seconds seem like minutes, and any health care provider will tell you that in a cardiac emergency or other life threatening threatening incident, seconds matter, minutes matter.

And the only plan that I've heard here today that can that comes close to guaranteeing a fast response time with a proven track record of doing and standing behind what they say is the Vandenberg County Fire Department.

So I'm here today to offer my uh unabashed support of Chief Ferrar's plan uh to take over EMS services out in the county, and I give him and his uh team my wholehearted recommendation.

Thank you.

Thanks, Sheriff.

Thank you.

Yeah, that uh brings up a good point.

We do have uh letters of support from uh individuals, and Sheriff Robinson did have one for Vanberg County Fire, and all proposals received letters of support.

So those will be put into the record.

Okay.

Any other public comment?

Like to address the commissioners.

Going once, going twice.

Okay.

Um any other details from legal uh going forward?

No, okay.

Like I mentioned, um there will be conversations, negotiations with what we've heard today.

Uh, and I I just want to tell the residents of the county that we're gonna make the make the best decision based on what evidence we have here.

We want a uh a safe, reliable uh EMS service uh and it's long term.

This isn't a uh short term plan.

We want to want a long term plan that's gonna uh work best for our county residents, and uh we will have a uh special session uh right before the June 16th meeting if anything else needs to be hashed out and then June 16th that final decision vote will be made here in the commissioner's office or commissioner's meeting at 9 30 on June 16th.

Okay, is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Thank you, thanks everyone.