EMS makes progress in volunteers

COLDWATER - Mercer County Emergency Medical Services' Coldwater branch is making headway in the recruitment department, signing up roughly 10 volunteers to undergo training and serve for at least two years.

Though the branch could still use about a dozen more abled-bodied men and women, the recent recruitment surge is a positive sign amid an areawide struggle to attract and retain volunteers.

"We've had some people step up," former county 911 administrator and Coldwater EMS branch treasurer Monte Diegel told the newspaper. "We already have some folks that are in class, and we have some more that will be starting in September."

Among the roughly 10 volunteers are four Coldwater High School seniors who will attend training two evenings a week for about four months, Diegel said.

"We've worked out with the school a great deal, and so these seniors will be taking EMT (emergency medical technician) classes and by spring they'll be allowed to run with us one at a time, one rotating days and then the other individuals will be helping us cover on-call time and station time," he said.

Some of the volunteers are enrolled in a class at St. Henry and others are being trained at Apollo Career Center in Lima. Another class will soon begin in Darke County, Diegel noted.

"The folks who have already started will have their state testing by December, and then the September group that starts will have theirs by the very first part of the year," he said.

Basic training costs about $1,400 per volunteer and is picked by Mercer County EMS. Students must complete the training and pass state and national tests before becoming full-fledged EMS members, Diegel said.

"Anytime that we put anybody through the course, it requires a two-year minimum agreement from the person," he said. "So basically the county pays for the classes and the person agrees to run for a minimum of two years."

Coldwater EMS members have made a concerted effort of late to intensify recruitment.

"We've been putting out information on our Coldwater EMS Facebook page as much as we can. Our members have been pushing it out there, and everybody's been talking to people," Diegel said. "This is a help. Obviously I think we could probably use 10 to 12 more people pretty easy that would be willing to go through the class and become certified."

Asked if Coldwater recruitment methods could be replicated in Rockford, home to an EMS branch that is also facing a volunteer shortage, Diegel said the employment dynamics are different there.

"Every single community is different. St. Henry and Coldwater, they have a pretty good business base where people can go to work. Rockford's not so fortunate in that," he said. "Most of the people who live in Rockford, unfortunately, have to leave the village to go work somewhere else."

The Rockford EMS branch, though, did initiate a program where Parkway seniors who intend to stay in the community after graduating ride-along with EMS volunteers to get a feel for the work, Diegel said.

During an EMS advisory board meeting in June, Diegel had made a plea to Coldwater employers.

"If we could find six businesses that could find one employe, just one employee that they would allow to leave one day a week on call, take these classes, we could fix the entire Coldwater EMS," he said at the meeting.

Two months later, Diegel maintains that position. There are a handful of Coldwater businesses which permit their employees to make ambulance runs one or two days a week.

"A couple of those, they don't penalize their employees, they pay them. They don't have to do that, and I think the only way we can get that message out is we have to continue to knock on business doors and try to encourage them," he said.

Diegel said businesses with flexible EMS policies are a win-win.

"That's a win for the community, but it's also a win for the employer, because now they have a certified EMT on their staff who works in their business," he said.

Diegel said the Coldwater branch needs to flesh out its schedule, especially daytime hours. Filling those time slots is difficult for almost any volunteer organization, Diegel said.

"That's when most people work, so that's where we would love to have that business connection and that business cooperation to find some employees that the businesses would allow to take the schooling and then to take call a day or two a week," he said.

Diegel also noted that the Rockford and Coldwater EMS branches again shared a booth at the Mercer County Fair. They sought out volunteers and those interested in supporting the EMS levy on the upcoming general election ballot.

"We teamed up with the Friends of Mercer County EMS group and we took sign-ups for people who would like campaign signs to support the levy in their front yards. I think that did very well," he said. "We had a lot of people signed up wanting the signs in the communities that will get to vote on that."

Voters from 10 of the county's 14 townships and the municipalities of Coldwater, Rockford, Mendon, Montezuma and Celina will likely decide the fate of a five-year, 1-mill property tax levy that would generate $1.18 million in its first collection year and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $35 per year.

The levy would allow for six volunteers - three at the Coldwater EMS branch and three at the Rockford EMS branch - to be paid $5 per hour to be on call.

"I certainly don't think this levy can hurt anything," Diegel said. "The Rockford and Coldwater branches both do a little bit different when it comes to reimbursing their members, and so this $5 an hour on-call pay will help. I'm hoping it will entice a few people. … If you're going to sit at home on Saturday afternoon and you could be on call for EMS and make five bucks an hour … maybe that's something that's doable for people."

The levy also would fund four full-time paramedics to provide support for volunteers on squad runs. The paramedics would be dispatched to scenes via "chase vehicles." The shifts would be 12 hours during the week and 24 hours during the weekend.