The Town of Bremen is looking into the possibility of running its ambulance service directly, but may continue using an outside provider in the meantime. Lutheran EMS says it will discontinue operating the town’s ambulance service, and Tri-County Ambulance has submitted a bid to take over next year.
But Town Council Member Mike Leman thinks the town could do it for less money. “The only way we’re going to be able to control our costs is to do it ourselves,” he told the rest of the council last week. “We found out that, first of all, nobody’s bidding on it, and, second of all, the bids are extremely high. It’s not going to cost any more money to do it ourselves.”
Leman said the cost of labor for the town is estimated to be $243,000 plus benefits, while Tri-County would charge over $450,000. He also suggested that the town could save money by starting with a used ambulance and seeking donations for the rest of the needed equipment. An outside company could be hired to handle billing.
But others cautioned that the $243,000 estimate was just preliminary, and a town ambulance service could take a year or more to set up. Town Attorney Anthony Wagner noted that the town could approve a two-year contract with Tri-County but cancel it when its own service is ready. “If we go this route, the point is to give us control,” Wagner explained. “We’ve got control over the quality of the service. We’ve got control over who’s running it. We don’t have this kind of ping-ponging between whoever thinks Bremen’s the market for them for a year or two and then they get out.”
Town officials planned to discuss the idea with the German Township-Bremen Ambulance Board last week, along with how a town ambulance service would be organized and how to pay for it. Leman noted that Bremen is one of the few communities in the local area that doesn’t operate its own ambulance service.
