Watertown Ambulance Service???? 

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I attended the special August 14th Watertown Township Board of Trustees meeting and spent 2 ½ hours listening to Ed McKeon, who suddenly can remember specific items from the Looking Glass Regional Fire Authority business plan, and Deb Adams quoting the same business plan that she refuses to admit exists, along with both pro and con citizen speakers. Ed McKeon spoke about his memory of what was planned for the Fire Department, quoting from the business plan he has in the past refused to admit existed, yet only using bits and pieces of the complete business plan to fit his intended message. Deb Adams did likewise, citing a portion of the plan concerning 2001 where the plan states that the LGRFA will continue to work with and use Mercy Ambulance. In 2001, the LGRFA was only on paper, no building existed, only the groundwork for the business plan(needed to apply for the federal grant) existed out of Eagle and Watertown meetings reaching and agreement as to how, where and the time frame for the establishment of the LGRFA was to take place. If Deb would have continued on in the time frame of the business plan she was using for reference, she would have noted, that in 2003 the LGRFA was to have a full-time Fire Chief, Deputy Chief, 3 firefighter/paramedics, with 2 more firefighter/paramedics to be hired in 2004. Yet she chose to intentionally leave this portion of the business plan out. Deb Adams also chose to quote from a letter written by Dennis Palmer of Lansing Mercy offering to place an ambulance in the LGRFA station in 2004 at no cost to LGRFA. Yet the very next paragraph in that same letter it states that the ambulance that would be stationed at the LGRFA station would be used for any calls in Mercy’s coverage area, five (5) townships and portions of 2 others in Clinton County, not to mention Lansing and transfers (hospital – hospital, etc), and not a dedicated ambulance for LGRFA coverage area exclusively. Deb did not mention this in her statements. Deb also chose to quote figures, which she used the terms just “guesses” and further stated that “these figures are just estimates, and could be accurate or way off and she would not want to use them as a basis for deciding on this important issue.” Come on Deb, who are you kidding? You were on the ad-hoc committee who came up with the numbers in the proposal, the Fire Chief Steve Fabiano and LGRFA Chairman John Clark did all the research you asked of them and more, yet you would not use the area average (Delta, Grand Ledge, Windsor, Lansing, Meridian, etc.) dollar figure for reimbursement that this study indicated was the norm for the area. Chief Fabiano even went so far as to talk to Medical Management, who is in the business of billing EMS runs for the City of Lansing, Delta Township, to name a couple of large municipalities that use them. Yet, the ad-hoc committee chose to use an average re-imbursement figure $120.00 per call lower than the area average, why is that Deb? It almost appears that the use of a lower figure was done intentionally to make your case for you that the ambulance service would cost more money that it really will. Lansing Mercy provides emergency ambulance service to five (5) townships and portions of another two (2) in Clinton County. If you are to believe Dennis Palmer CEO Lansing Mercy, they always have on 4 ambulances a day (only 1 in Clinton County per Dennis Palmer), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Dennis Palmer, CEO Lansing Mercy, stated at the August 14th B.O.T. meeting that Mercy responds to emergency calls only in Clinton Count, not in Ingham County. Yet, in listening to the scanner, how is it that on numerous occasions (over 5 times per week on average) Clinton County Central Dispatch has to get on the radio and ask Clinton Area Ambulance Service to “sit point” for Mercy since they are out of ambulances to respond to an emergency without being toned out for any emergency dispatches in Clinton County? Sitting point means Clinton Area Ambulance leaves St. Johns and moves to a position between there and Dewitt, usually around Price/Business 127. How does this happen you ask? Lansing Mercy is a for profit business, and by using the ambulances on duty, wherever they may be for transfers Mercy keeps the money coming in. Transfers are guaranteed money for Mercy. Emergency calls are a risk, you do no know if you are going to get any calls and if you will get any money out of the people/insurance companies when you do make an emergency call, whereas transfers make money! Hence, Mercy will always take the transfer over sitting around waiting for someone to call 911 with an emergency. You might ask yourself, what impact does this have on Mercy being available for emergency runs, when they are making transfer runs? None of the municipal ambulances in Lansing, East Lansing, Meridian Township, Delta Township, Lansing Township, Delhi Township or Windsor Township make transfer calls; they are there solely for 911 calls. Up until the last 2 years, Mercy had operated in Sturgis Michigan. I use the word had, because due to emergency response availability issues, Mercy no longer operates in Sturgis or surrounding St. Joseph County. Sturgis City Fire Department took over, starting ALS service for the entire former Mercy coverage area. As for the figures Deb Adams used for the Township “impact” of an ambulance, the little known fact of the yearly $40 - $45,000.00 for first responder (non residents only) and fire billing that Watertown Township receives, and was not common knowledge would change. It would change in the following manner, the fire billing would stay the same, and instead of first responder billing to the non-residents, there would be AMBULANCE billing instead. If a Township resident calls 911 for a medical emergency, 911 sends LGRFA and Mercy. No township resident gets a first responder billing for LGRFA per Watertown Township Policy. They do get a bill from Mercy though for the ambulance call. Therefore, it stands to reason, of the approximate 100 residents that called for medical emergencies would receive a bill for ambulance service. The only argument is who is going to provide that service, LGRFA or Mercy. If Mercy is the EMS provider, the money leaves the community to a FOR PROFIT BUSINESS. If LGRFA is the EMS provider, the money is used to OFFSET the general fund expenses incurred by Watertown Township in their share of the LGRFA budget. On top of the resident billing, is the non-resident billing and fire response to accident billing, these would also help offset Watertown Townships’ portion of the LGRFA budget. Finally, Deb & Al trying to put Mercy Ambulance into the LGRFA station, on a “trail basis for one year, with review after 6 months” after Deb made the statement in a LGRFA Board meeting that “the Fire Department could not provide ambulance service on a trial basis since once it is provided the citizens will expect it all of the time”. Hypocritical don’t you think. Even if Eagle doesn’t laugh Deb & Al out of the next LGRFA meeting, Eagle Township as a board has already made a resolution stating that they want a LGRFA based ambulance to cover the LGRFA service area. Now, let’s see if the meeting minutes by Husby even come close to what I have written from my memory, let alone the recording devices she has at her finger tips and her hand written notes.

Chris, on August 14th, the Watertown Township Board will be holding a public hearing concerning the Fire Department operating an ambulance. Now is the time for all of the supporters to come forward, and tell the board members exactly how they feel, ask questions of them, make them give you answers, get you information that you, as citizens of this township need to make these decisions. Hopefully, the board will have/invite the Fire Chief to the meeting so he will be available to answer citizen questions concerning costs, operations and such. Please pass the word to all supporters of the FD to be at this meeting and show their support for the FD and for the FD based ambulance service for the LGRFA.

The major issue is response time and cost. LGRFA is on scene within minutes of the call to 911. Mercy responds when they can. I think that the staff of Mercy is doing a fine job transporting people but then they get paid for doing the easy work. The hard part is the initial response. People in our township are recieving quality service from both entities. The problem is the expense to the residents of Eagle & Watertown. I have never thought it made any sense to not have an ambulance so we can charge for transport and recover some of our expenses. Now the LGFA has presented a report saying that changing the operations of the fire department to include transportation would reduce the LGRFA operating budget by $20,000. The BOT from Eagle strongly supports this idea. I support this idea. I don't know where the rest of my board stands. I also do not know what their concerns are. The LGRFA presented a Ad Hoc report to both boards the other night. This information was backaged as something new, brand new findings. The problem that I have is that this information is not new. This information has been common knowledge since the formation of the Authority. There was nothing presented that was new. I don't know how many times people have to look at it. The bottom line is the same today as it was 4 years ago, you'll never make money having a fire department, what you can do is off set your expenses by providing transport. This was pretty clearly shown by the new Watertown members to the authority. I think that the major problem is that people who campaingend against Chris Pratt are faced with how to tell people that what they said during that campaign was wrong and that Chris Pratt was right.

Chirs I just checked the Watertown web site showing the agenda for next Mondays ( July 17) meeting, as usual, the board has placed the subject of LGRFA Ambulance as the last item on the agenda. This is a deliberate act to ensure that the usual infighting over the rest of the items on the agenda will cause any people interested in speaking on this subject matter to go home before this business is taken care of. Is there a way to get this agenda item moved to the beginning of the agenda?

Chris, An interesting item came out of the Joint meeting between Watertown and Eagle,... Watertown Township has billed and recovered approximately $40,000.00 to $45,000.00 yearly since the establishment of LGRFA for medical first responder services to non-residents and all fire responses. With a collection rate of BELOW 60%. I am sure this is not public knowledge, and kept quiet by the staff and the board. Hypothetically, if watertown were to support a FD based ambulance, and billed everyone who used it (as Mercy does when it responds), and and generated even more revenue, say $50 - $60,000.00/year on top of the Fire Response Billing.. hmm.. that is what the last recreation dept. budget was. $40,000.00 + $50,000.00 = $90,000.00 In using a professional billing service, the collection rate for the billing will be at 80% or greater(per statistics quoted by the LGFRA Ad Hoc Ambulance Committee) Common sense says use the FD and its personnel to their fullest potential! For all those who are concerned about this issue or any issue before the Watertown Board, go to the meetings, demand to be able to express your wishes, and make the Trustees represent the RESIDENTS WISHES, not their own wishes for the Township now and in the future.

Chris, I just thought you and your readers should know that the issue of a Fire Department based ambulance service is now in the hands of the Board of Trusstees of Watertown Township. At the joint meeting between Eagle and Watertown Townships, Eagle Township Board members strongly supported a FD based ambulance be placed into service. Now it is up to Watertown "to further discuss" the issue according to Skeritt/Adams at the July B.O.T. meeting. SInce George pointed out that the FD first responders are providing the initial patient care prior to the arrival of Mercy or Portland Ambulances, yet the FD or Townships do not bill for this service, the FD is doing the work and Portland or Mercy is getting the PAYMENT! Why is this? Why are the taxpayers of the two townships supporting a private company(Mercy) or providing Portland with a yearly $30,000.00 just to responded into Eagle Twp - ANDPortland ALSO bills the patients they transport ALSO, when the revenue generated could be used to offset a portion of the yearly FD budget for each Township? Common sense says, if the FD has the qualified people to provide the service, utilize the FD personnel to generate revenue to offset expenditures. No matter how large either township grows, the FD will never generate enough revenue through ambulance billing to be self sustaining, but they can surely generate revenue to offset a portion of the general fund expenditures the FD represents for each Township.

You are correct, the original contract with Mercy expired several years ago. I'll be interested in hearing about the outcome of the meeting.

By the way Chris, Lansing Mercy DOES NOT HAVE A CONTRACT to cover Watertown and a portion of Eagle Township. Dennis Palmer from Mercy made that statement at a recent meeting of EMS agencies in Clinton County. He would love to have a contract, and get some sort of cash payment from the townships to cover each of them. Private ambulance services make their money from transfers ( to hospitals, nursing homes, etc.), the emergency runs are a sideline. Tranfers for a private ambulance service are guarenteed money, unlike 911 calls. Many times during a week, Mercy has no ambulances available for emeregency calls (without being paged out over Clinton County 911 for a emergency call), and request Clinton Area Ambulance sit "point"(Price/US27) for them to cover the Mercy response area. Mercy claims they have 3 ALS ambulances staffed at all times, I find this hard to believe when listening to the radio traffic on the scanner and the numerous requests for Clinton Area Ambulance to sit point for them without Mercy being paged out for a 911 call.

Chris, there is supposed to be a Joint Meeting (Eagle & Watertown) in the next 10 days or so to address the ambulance issue. Do you know anymore about this than what I have heard about the meeting? I have not seen any postings of meetings, just rumors that it is going to happen.

Chris, I heard that the LGRFA has formed an Committee to look into providing ambulance service for Eagle and Watertown, and should have all their information by the end of June for presentations to the Authority Board and the Township Boards. Maybe the Boards will listen and finally the ambulance for the area will be provided by the Fire Department who has a stake in the community, rather than a FOR PROFIT private business.

This Township deserves an ambulance service to be provided by the Fire Department. They are first on the scene so why should we have to wait for an ambulance service that arrives at the scene several minutes later? Spend the taxpayer dollars on services that benefit Watertown. Do not spend any money on a sewer system upgrade that would only benefit DeWitt Township and the developers.

Jean and Jennifer like to "play" like they have the ability to conduct the business of the Township but all they really do is "pretend" with smokescreens, mirrors and support staff which tends to be even more costly using larger portions of the Watertown budget. They sure know how to take advantage of the system. I wonder how it is that they can look at themselves in the mirror. Don't either of them have what the rest of us good citizens posess for instance, integrity and a conscience? P.S. There is a male board member who speaks freely about the ills of the board and my hat is off to him. Too bad that the rest of the board doesn't grow a conscience and that this guy doesn't speak to the press.

I think it is important to note the Grand Ledge Fire Department has not provided ambulance service to Watertown since Mercy took it over many, many years ago. There's never been much argument about whether Watertown residents require ambulance service dispatched from Watertown, Grand Ledge or Dewitt for that matter until recently. The subject continues to come up about whether or not LGRFA should begin using its "Advanced Life Support" capabilities for transport services -- and if so, what costs might be associated with the offsetting benefits of adding this service. When we selected staff for LGRFA we hired paramedics just in case we got an ultimatum from Mercy some day that Grand Ledge got last year from Life. If something happens with ambulance service to Watertown and Eagle residents, LGRFA has the core components necessary to take over almost without notice. This was part of a contingency plan not a transition strategy to immediately institute transport services and replace Mercy. Very recently, various agencies have made offers to assist Watertown (Grand Ledge and Lansing) with vague offers of cooperative arrangements. I sence that outsiders have senced Watertowns' Administrative vulnerabilities and may be looking to create an opportunity to spread their costs. I'm not convinced farming ambulance services to new outside providers is the right thing to do at this point knowing likely represents new investment and cost sharing. This, of course translates to added eventual burdens upon taxpayers. I’d like to see a published business plan consisting of an intellectual evaluation of all options, first! Current Watertown administration has not demonstrated a particular expertise in this area. As to Grand Ledge, I’d like to see several years experience in their running an ambulance service before I would consider a long term cooperative agreement or partnership. But, I wonder what kind of partner Watertown might make given the mess certain Watertown Board members and Administrators have made of the once progressive LGRFA. I think the Watertown Board needs to focus on rebuilding its credibility by demonstrating to taxpayers they can manage the complexities of present services before adding more.

To anonymous, I don't normally use the media to argue other's opioions but this time I'm just curious as to your source of information concerning the number of lives lost waiting for Grand Ledge Fire Department's response waiting for a train. I've been with the department for over twenty years and I can't recall a single incident where a life has been lost due to waiting for train traffic. I have been monmentarely delayed at the crossing in route to an incident but can't recall one time it impacted negetively in a life safety issue. When a train did block the crossing an immediate call to central dispatch for automatic mutual aid was made and other agencies were dispatched in case the delay was lengthy. You are more than welcome to call or visit and we will peruse the records in search of your "rememberence".

We read your comments to the editor in the Grand Ledge Independent and are troubled by the fact that they would contract with Grand Ledge for ambulance service. (Remember how many people have perished just waiting for the GL. Fire Department to get here after waiting for a train to pass). Jean lives right on the Delta boarder, Al is moving soon and Jennifer doesn't even live near our Township. They don't care aboutthe people of Watertown Twsp. Al Skerrit, Jean Husby and Jennifer Sims have always been against any fire protection in this community but they sure don't mind taking their paychecks from this Township.

We like the idea that LGRFA is at the scene first. This could save a lot of lives. What is Jean,Jennifer and the board thinking when they entertain the idea of contracting the ambulance service out to Mercy? Common sense would suggest to the logic minded individual that we should use our own Fire Authority Paramedics because they respond first. Of course Jean and Jennifer don't like the residents of Watertown and Clinton County so why would they care if lives were lost to satisfy their own political needs in making their private deals with Mercy? Why are they so insensitive...what kind of deals are they really making with Mercy and why?

Cris, I will get a copy to you soon.

Dear Concerned Citizen: Pass the schedule to me via ccp@voyager.net and I will publish it without disclosing my source. Or, cut and paste it into the body of your next comment. I think that Clerk Husby, being the most critical of what everybody else does around her could use a little attention focused upon her own vulnerabilities.

To The Doctor -- I have extended, by my choice, the privilege allowing you to post your comments even though they are contrary to mine. I challenge you to be specific about what I'm lying about? Facts are a basis for my opinions -- I'm happy to argue the facts or be proven wrong. "Pre-filtered drivel" and “bile” is an excellent description for the minutes produced by the Clerks office. Attending every Board meeting is a waste of time considering some Officials can’t remember what they say from one meeting to the next, and the Clerk selectively records very little discussion. Some of the Officials I have named never bothered to come to me while I was on the Board. Instead they worked behind my back and sniped me at public meetings orchestrated by McKeon, Adams, Skerritt, Tubbs-Sims and Maas to build controversy – not look out for the public good. Yes, these articles contain my opinions -- at least I've got the guts to be public about them and bring forth facts to argue my point.

THE MINUTES ARE NEVER A GREAT REFLECTION OF THE MEETINGS AT ALL BECAUSE JEANE MANIPULATES THEM TO REFLECT WHAT SHE WANTS THEM TO FOCUS ON SERVING HER NEEDS ONLY. THE ONLY THING THAT SHE WANTS IS TO TAKE A PAYCHECK FROM THE TAXPAYERS THAT SHE IS DESERVING OF BECAUSE SHE WORKS ON HER LANDSCAPE BUSINESS FIRST. THE POSITION SHE HOLDS PAYS HER WELL CONSIDERING THAT SHE WORKS PART TIME AND GETS OVER 40,000. FOR PLUS FULL BENEFITS. WHY HECK SHE CAN USE THE TOWNSHIP ELECTRICITY AND EQUIPMENT AND REALLY JUST WORK HER LANDSCAPE BUSINESS RIGHT OUT OF THE TOWNSHIP OFFICES. YOU TAX PAYERS DON'T MIND, OR DO YOU? WOULD ANYONE OUT THERE BE INTERESTED IN SEEING HER COMINGS AND GOINGS ALL WRITTEN NEATLY ON CALANDARS THAT INCLUDES ALL INTER OFFICE COMINGS AND GOINGS ALL RECORDED BY A FORMER EMPLOYEE THAT SHE SET UP FOR DISMISSAL WHEN JEANNE DISCOVERED THAT SHE WAS BEING 'WATCHED'? JEANNE, YOU REALLY NEED TO START USING YOUR TIME MORE WISELY AND STOP WRITING TO THIS SITE!

plop, plop, fizz, fizz,.... Mr Pratt needs a little relief for all the bile he spills out through this site. I think he needs a little reality relief also. Maybe he could get first hand accounts instead of prefiltered drivel from his "sources". Maybe he could read the minutes from meetings or actually talk to the people he names about their positions. Maybe he will eventually find out lying about what, and who and when, is just a waste of time.

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