CLARKSVILLE, Ind. — It’s a multi-million dollar desire, and one Clarksville is working to figure out how to pay for to speed up potentially lifesaving responses in town.
That would be a big cost hike compared with what Clarksville is paying now annually for EMS, which is around $270,000 to $275,000 according to its fire chief.
“The sticker price shock is going to be the startup cost,” Fire Chief Brandon Skaggs said. “You’re looking at around three-and-a-half million dollars startup cost, around 2.3, 2.4 (million dollars) operating costs after that a year.”
Skaggs said Clarksville’s own EMS would be its own department within his department.
He wants at least three ambulances with one assigned to each of Clarksville’s three districts.
On top of that, he would need to hire another nine EMT’s and 12 paramedics.
With everything in place, Skaggs believes they would cut EMS response times more than in half.
“Four to five minutes,” he said. “We currently get that with our fire engines running on first responder runs.”
According to data FOCUS received from Clark County, the average response time for the year by New Chapel EMS, a private company which the county contracts with, was 10 minutes and 58 seconds.
However, on Nov. 7, Election Day, it took almost 15 minutes from dispatch to arrival on scene at Renaissance Academy.
David “Red” Worrall, who was running for town council, went into cardiac arrest at the polling station.
“You had a lot of people saying 'where’s the ambulance, where’s the ambulance, where’s the ambulance?'” Skaggs said.
People anxiously asking that question included police officers and firefighters.
Skaggs pointed out his firefighters are often on scenes before an ambulance arrives.
After the ambulance arrived at Renaissance Academy, it took another 11 minutes to get Worrall to Norton Clark Hospital, but it was too late to save him.
“That was a tough one,” Skaggs lamented. “He was my friend.”
Although Worrall’s death renewed big concerns about response times, Skaggs said discussions about Clarksville starting its own EMS had happened for a while prior.
He also says this has nothing to do with distancing the town from New Chapel’s founder and former Clark County Sheriff, Jamey Noel.
Noel is facing several criminal charges, including one count of corrupt business influence, four counts of theft, once count of obstruction of justice, five counts of ghost unemployment, and four counts of official misconduct.
“I’m looking at this from a fact based, I’m looking at this from what my community needs, and Jamey’s situation has nothing to do with our actions right now,” Skaggs said. “We know that we’re not satisfied with what we’re getting, and we know that our community needs more.”
He said if it’s a go, the earliest Clarksville could get its own EMS up and running would be late 2024, early 2025.
New Chapel EMS did not respond to efforts for comment.
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