Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Multi-Township EMS board members confirmed at least two township trustees have requested their services over local volunteer departments.
"They came to us," said Multi-Township board member Bob Morrison. "After we contracted with Silver Lake and those townships, it just began to snowball."
Morrison is the Warsaw City Council representative on the Multi-Township board.
"We sat down and talked with the trustee up there (Jerry Kammerer) and presented them with a contract," said Multi-Township board of directors president Ron Robinson. "If Plain Township signs it, we'll be in up there March 1.
"We also agreed to a contract with Washington Township and that was delivered Thursday."
Robinson said the EMS board was in negotiations with Clay Township several times last summer.
"We told them what it would take to operate in the township. Nearby Lake and Seward township trustees, who also contracted with South Central, contacted us, too."
Carla Gebert, Multi-Township director since November, said operating an emergency medical service with just volunteers is tough.
"Pierceton EMS provides a great service and they do the best they can," she said. "We've not gone out looking for business. The trustees have come to us.
"These communities want a stable, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week response in their area and Multi-Township can provide that."
Gebert was the county EMS coordinator for eight years and worked for Kosciusko Community Hospital. She came here from Whitley County were she was a paramedic for the Whitley County EMS.
She said people would see ambulance bills of at least $400, plus charges for medication and mileage.
"We're looking to hire more staff," she said.
Annie Espinoza, president of the Pierceton EMS, wishes there had been more communication between 25-year-old organization and the township.
"Our contract wasn't renewed in December," she said Friday. "We were blindsided. Departments are getting together, making decisions and not asking us. We're a small community. We don't rock the boat and we do what we can."
Multi-Township EMS, based in Warsaw and Silver Lake, and the North Webster and Syracuse ambulance services have paramedics on staff. Multi-Township also has an advanced emergency medical technician.
Per state laws, a paramedic is dispatched whenever a call suggests a heart attack, shortness of breath or life-threatening injury has occurred.
Multi-Township routinely responds to traffic accidents and many times two ambulances arrive to calls in the county.
In Pierceton, the local volunteers responded to calls between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
"If the EMS isn't there, the first responders will have to be toned out," Espinoza said.
Gebert agreed with that assessment. "The Pierceton Fire Department's first responders are already being dispatched. They will be the first people to arrive.
"They are top-notch. Those guys are excellent at providing care, thanks to a vigorous program. The first responders in Pierceton are awesome."
