Ephrata confirms end of ambulance service

Union seeking legal action for laid off employees

It's official.

Ephrata's ambulance service has ended, but the legal battles between the city and the paramedics union are just beginning.

At their Wednesday meeting, Ephrata City Council members declined to reconsider a Feb. 10 motion that eliminated the city's emergency-medical service.

With that lack of action, Ricky Walsh, field service representative for the International Association of Fire Fighters, told city officials the union would pursue legal action with the state Public Employment Relations Commission.

According to the grievance, the union claims the city discriminated ambulance employees, interfered with their rights and refused to bargain with the union in an action that ended with 10 paramedics losing their jobs.

"It's been very frustrating," Walsh said in an interview after the meeting.

Walsh, who works for the Richland Fire Department, added that the union made several concessions, including streamlining the ambulance staff from 14 employees last year to seven this summer, but the city always found a different problem within the contract.

"In 18 years of union work, I've had this happen before," Walsh said of the city's rejection of union offers.

City Administrator Wes Crago said the city has not yet prepared an official response to the union's claims, but he feels the city did what it had to do.

"We strongly disagree with what they (the union) allege the violations were," Crago said. "We believe we have a strong record of meeting, bargaining and letting these guys have their day at Council."

The dark days began for the ambulance service last October when city officials realized serious financial problems on the horizon, Crago said. The ambulance was losing $30,000 per month, and revenues were not taking a turn for the positive, he said.

In January, the Council began discussing dropping the service as it was scheduled to run out of money at the end of April.

On Feb. 10, the Council voted to dissolve the service. Grant County Fire District No. 5 has applied with the state Department of Health to cover the territory now handled by Ephrata paramedics.

The issue came before the Council again Wednesday night as union leaders requested $38,000 to keep the service afloat until November. At that time, Walsh said, the city could float a levy before voters to determine whether they wanted to keep the service.

"It's actually a perfect scenario for you," Walsh told Council members. "You get to let the voters make the decision for you, and if something goes bad, no one can come here and point the finger at you."

Walsh was flanked by uniformed Ephrata paramedics at the meeting.

Mayor Chris Jacobson said he did not feel as though the people of Ephrata would approve a levy to keep the ambulance service.

Three members of the community spoke during the meeting about losing the service.

Brenda Herr, who works at Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata, said she was confused as to why the ambulance service is running out of money.

"I feel really having somebody from out of town taking over this ambulance area," she said.

Herr said ambulances sometimes receive simultaneous calls, and she fears Ephrata will be lower on the totem pole of emergency calls.

"Do you want your mother, who's complaining of chest pain, to be the third call of the day?" she asked Council members.

Jacobson said the Council is not ignoring people who need ambulances, but it has few options. Other small Washington cities have seen similar crises and been forced to get rid of ambulance services because they can't afford them, he said.

"When you can't afford to do something, you don't do it," Jacobson said.

Craig Hutson, who was laid off as head of the ambulance service after 12 years with the city, said the change will be dramatic at first, but the quality of service will not diminish. Maybe in 10 years, Hutson said, the ambulance service will return to a "hometown" feel, if under a different name.

The city ambulance service is still running today. Crago said he would call the Department of Health Thursday morning and inform them of the Council's decision. The health department would then decide when the new agency would take over Ephrata's coverage area, he said.

That agency would then be required to set up a shop within the city, he said.

Grant County 5 is not guaranteed to take over for Ephrata, but no other agency has expressed an interest in the job, Crago said.