Joint powers board seeks more answers on EMS study

ELY—Members of the Ely Area Ambulance Joint Powers Board expressed some skepticism when it came to the recent proposal for a regionalized ambulance service, presented publicly by SafeTech Solutions consultants last month.
The study, commissioned by Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital, had suggested a three-way merger of Ely, Tower, and Babbitt’s ambulance services, but the consultant’s request that financial estimates and assumptions not be released, at least for now, had prompted some skepticism among board members.
“How come nobody got the report?” asked Bob Berrini, a Morse representative on the joint powers board. Berrini noted that the report’s findings were initially slated for completion in January and that the June 13 informational session was less revealing than he would have liked.
Board member Al Forsman requested that the hospital share the slide stack from the SafeTech presentation. Banks replied that the hospital board had approved sharing the presentation and that she would send it by email. The hospital shared the presentation slides with the new media on the afternoon of June 19, after the Timberjay went to press with the June 21 edition.
Ely Bloomenson CEO Patti Banks explained that the hospital didn’t have copies yet of the complete report, and that the meeting was to introduce the study results so that people in the local communities could begin to discuss them. “Now the conversation really is, are we going to move forward and look at some type of original approach or are we going to remain with the status quo?” Banks said.
City officials in Tower have expressed a willingness to explore the SafeTech proposal, but have also expressed concern about the lack of financial data and the assumptions that the consultants used to determine the economic viability of their proposal.