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MILL HALL -- Mill Hall Fire Company will temporarily stop conducting lift assists.
Announced during Bald Eagle Township's supervisor meeting Monday, the fire company will temporarily stop responding to lift assists.
According to Mill Hall Fire Chief Tony Walker, the company voted to discontinue them for the time being during their May's meeting. He added the issue is due to a lack of help as well as other issues he would not publicly address.
The fire company previously discontinued lift assists about six years ago. At that time they stopped due to lack of training and issues of liability, according to Walker.
"That was a big issue and that is part of this other one -- why we quit doing them. I did leave that up to the company, so they voted," he said.
Lift assists are involved when an individual is assisted up to a mobile position from the ground by emergency service officials. They are not treated or brought to a hospital for medical attention. An ambulance is dispatched for emergency specific incidents.
Since lift assists fall under a non-emergency, it falls back onto fire companies, according to Flemington Goodwill Hose Ambulance Chief Kim Shainline, who was in attendance during the meeting.
"If there is any form of question on if it is a medical issue, then an ambulance is dispatched," she said.
Other municipalities have either stopped doing assists or have partnered with local ambulance stations, according to Walker. They signed up to be quick response services (QRS).
Firefighters are meant to be well rounded for such incidents, according to Walker. There are currently only two medically trained EMTs at Mill Hall Fire Company, he added.
Shainline was in attendance with other members of Goodwill Ambulance in order to set up Goodwill Hose as the next responding department. Currently, after the Mill Hall Fire Company, Goodwill EMS is the next to call for lift assists through dispatchers.
Goodwill Hose Fire Chief Gary Mellot is offering to take up the assists with Mill Hall being unable to, according to Shainline.
"Gary said they (Goodwill Hose) would still be interested in helping fulfill that need because now it is an unmet need for your community. Which could mean that person ends up sitting on the floor for a half hour to an hour or longer, and now it does become a medical emergency. What if there is no ambulance available for that patient?" she said.
More of a burden is being placed onto ambulance services who are taking care of emergencies with injured people, according to Shainline. Ambulances from Williamsport or State College are forced to pick up lift assists when Clinton County services are busy.
"That doesn't make any sense to me, especially when there are firefighters around who are still doing the lift assists," Shainline said.
The caller is indicated if they are in an emergency with a dispatcher. The dispatcher then has a list of questions signifying if it is an emergency or not. A patient is billed after three lift assists, according to Shainline. The first two have no charge.
With the lack of manpower for lifting assisting, Walker said the fire company partnered with Goodwill Hose as they were doing nine-tenths of the lift assists.
"They were doing most of them for us because we didn't have anyone," Walker said.
Supervisors had an issue of what is considered an emergency, since they have a year-long contract with Mill Hall Fire Company. Supervisor Stephen Tasselli said that Mill Hall is in a contract with them and should stick by it until it expires in December.
"A contract is a contract. I don't want to hold a gun to your head because of one thing but it is what it is," he said.
Bald Eagle Township tries to give every emergency service department in the area a stipend, according to Chairman Tuff Rine. Mill Hall Fire Company gets a major share due to the number of calls they receive in Bald Eagle Township.
"I can't really tell you Bald Eagle Township can do anything other than ask that our communications center follows the call procedure that has been set up -- somebody is calling to get lifted versus somebody who has fallen and broken their head open -- I think it becomes a question of the communications center on who they should call," Rine said. "If Mill Hall has decided that they are not going to do lift assists anymore, then I would think the communications center should flip to the other page and have Goodwill take care of it."
The Mill Hall Fire Company has been dealing with issues regarding lift assists for almost a year and a half.
"Because of some issues that some monkey dug up which caused a lot of chaos within all the emergency services here in the county. That is why a lot of them quit doing them (lift assists)," Walker explained.
He added the fire departments and supervisors should meet and "hash something out."
Tasselli urged that they are trying to support everybody with the issue. He added he hopes they can work together to come to a resolution.
"We are kind of in a catch 22 listening to everybody and trying to help out and communicate with you all to keep this service," he said. "We also tried on a couple of occasions with services to try to go to Lock Haven... to get a back door for you guys besides Flemington and we were told 'hey we can't do that, you're not allowed to do that' from the city manager. We are kind of in the same boat you are but I think you guys are doing a good job communicating with what's happening right now."
Shainline asked for the supervisors' approval for Goodwill Hose to be the next due for lift assists.
Colten Mellott, the deputy fire chief for Goodwill Hose, was also in attendance during the meeting Monday, representing the fire company. He explained how their officers have the minimum training requirements for lift assists. There are about three EMT trained members of the company, so far.
"We are here to help the community whether it's Flemington Borough, Bald Eagle Township, Mill Hall, Lock Haven. We ran 81 calls this year and so far, we have not dropped a single one. Our department's ever expanding, we run an engine tanker, a traffic unit... and we have a rescue. We put medical equipment on board and we are working to get into QRS certification. All of our line officers, whether it's from the fire chief down to the sergeant, all of them we require a minimum, you have to have first aid/CPR and most of our guys that are going are officers, so they have the minimum training requirements," he explained.
They will ask the patient if they are hurt, and if they are, Goodwill Hose will contact an ambulance service for assessment. Mellott offered supervisors their service whenever they needed.
In other business:
There has been no progress with the Cottage Lane water line project.
At April's supervisors meeting, Steve Gibson, the director of planning/county engineer attended to discuss the project. During that meeting, it was discussed that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will pay for engineering of the water lines once there is a project sponsor. A sponsor must be the entity that applies for the necessary loans. They will take on all financial responsibility if grant funding is not received. It is an issue that supervisors fear to take on currently.
As of Monday's meeting, there is nothing new from Gibson or Suburban Water, according to supervisors.
"I thought Steve Gibson was supposed to get back to us with more details and present some options," Tasselli said.
The only cost for the township would be legal fees according to supervisor Kenny McGhee's summation of what Gibson stated.
"I am in favor of signing the application to get it started," McGhee said. "The engineering is going to be paid for by DEP. They're supplying it, and might as well use it."
The project will not go anywhere until the application has a sponsor. Supervisors plan to contact Gibson about the application signage and making progress with Cottage Lane.