When: Marietta Borough Council meeting, Feb. 11. Council member Steven DeBottis and Mayor Rebecca Carroll-Baltozer were absent.
What happened: Vice President Jeffrey Hudson voiced concern about the ambulance service covering the borough, the Municipal Emergency Services Authority of Lancaster County, or MESA, and usage by boroughs and townships outside their coverage area.
Background: Emergency management services must operate on a principle of mutual aid. If ambulances are busy in one area, then ambulances in nearby areas can be called to assist.
By the numbers: Over the past year, MESA has been dispatched to 950 calls in Columbia and Mount Joy boroughs, and Rapho and West Hempfield townships. Ambulances transported patients in those areas 652 times. However, MESA is supposed to cover member municipalities: Elizabethtown and Marietta boroughs and Conoy, East Donegal, Mount Joy and West Donegal townships. Hudson explained that ambulances are responding to calls outside the designated service area 14% of the time. Residents of member municipalities are required to pay $85 per household every year.
Solutions: Hudson will send a letter to the municipal boards in Columbia and Mount Joy boroughs and Rapho and West Hempfield townships with statistics. He said his ultimate goal is to keep costs down or ensure that ambulances are available for Marietta residents.
Quotable: "It's a financial problem, but I also think it's an ethical problem. You should cover the area that you say you're going to cover," Hudson said. "First, I want an ambulance to show up if (a Marietta resident) gets hurt. The second thing is it is expensive stuff, and I want to keep the costs down."
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