Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon addresses Jamestown City Council (April 10, 2023)
Jamestown City Council heard more details at its work session about a proposed purchase of a second ambulance for the Jamestown Fire Department.
A resolution proposes using $250,000 in American Rescue Plan funds for the purchase.
Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon said the number of mutual aid calls has been rising steadily since 2019, with 324 calls that year, 342 calls in 2020, 419 calls in 2021, and 468 calls in 2022, “I have little reason to believe that number would be under 500 this year. Our call out continues to increase. Again, these are all calls Jamestown Fire does respond to but we have to use mutual aid for that transport vehicle.”
After the question of the life expectancy of the vehicle was raised, Coon said ambulances generally last in the 10 to 15 year range.
The Fire Department’s current ambulance is a 2013 model. Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the city received $300,000 in revenue through billing in 2022 for use of the first ambulance.
Coon said he’d have to get Council estimates on what could be gained through billing for a second ambulance.
Council member Marie Carrubba asked specifically what expenses were involved with running the ambulance and how that compared with the revenue brought in.
Council members had requested additional information from the administration before the voting session in March about how the purchase of the second ambulance could help bring in revenue to support the proposed hiring of eight firefighters after the three-year $1.8 million federal grant funding those positions ran out.
Sundquist said that information will be made available at the April 17 work session. He cited the issue that former Comptroller Joe Bellitto is only assisting the city on a contractual basis and isn’t full time while the city continues to look for a full-time Comptroller.
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