Crossville City Council members who voted for a new ambulance service said they believe now is the right time to start such a service.
Council Member Mark Fox said an ambulance service is the only essential service the city currently does not provide. Fox said he believes the city needs its own service due to amount of growth the city is experiencing.
“I feel strongly that Crossville needs the ability to have oversight and direction of their program that suits our city’s needs, that may be different from the county needs,” Fox said. “And that’s the main reason I supported this.”
Crossville Mayor RJ Crawford said the city would have to raise property taxes by 75 percent to fund the ambulance service. Council Member Art Gernt said he always felt like an ambulance service was a good idea, but it was just a matter of timing and money.
“I looked at the money, and I just, I just don’t, I just don’t believe this is gonna be as bad as what’s being portrayed outside here,” Gernt said. “But you know, but we have a lot of conversations yet to have.”
Fox said fire-based EMS is the new trend and can provide better outcomes with a faster response. Fox said the city’s ambulance service can help reduce the coverage area that the county would have to cover.
“Cumberland County is about the fourth largest land county in the state, so they have 680 square miles to cover,” Fox said. “The city of Crossville has 21 or 22 square miles to cover. So a lot of it is dealing with response times. This way, Crossville can have dedicated ambulances that would remain in Crossville as opposed to county ambulances that are stationed in Crossville, but then need to respond out in the county as their calls come in, which is totally understandable. But with reportedly 50 percent of the calls to EMS originating in the city, certainly we have a disproportionate large share of the calls in this defined area, and this will allow us to have dedicated units to remain in Crossville to serve our citizens, residents, and workforce.”
Fox said adopting an ambulance service is also a move to get ahead of Senate Bill 160 and House Bill 83, should they pass in the upcoming legislative session.
“If passed, a county could request that a city reimburse them for the delivery of EMS inside that city,” Fox said. “Which, for Crossville, could mean several million dollars spread out that Crossville could be asked to pay the county. Now, is it going to pass this next spring? I don’t know. But the fact that it has come up and has gotten this degree of attention, I think at some point it is going to pass.”
One concern the council had about installing an ambulance service was the possibility of the county withdrawing the four ambulances that are stationed in Crossville. Gernt said he hopes the county does not withdraw those ambulances.
Fox and Gernt said they believe the city’s ambulance service is going to be a success.
“I do think it’s gonna work,” Gernt said. “And I think we are all gonna have something that we are gonna be very proud of, and I think in three or four years we are all gonna be just happy and just this day will pass.”
“If I did not believe that this was going to work, I would not be a supporter of it,” Fox said. “If I did not believe that there was going to be improved outcomes, and gain not being critical of our current service, but part of what determines a victim’s or a patient’s outcome is a response time.”