New Pafford proposal now in writing
Photo courtesy of Pafford EMS
Pafford Emergency Medical Services has provided Lincoln Parish’s Ambulance Service Committee with a draft contract to provide EMS to parish citizens outside the city of Ruston beginning Jan. 1.
The Lincoln Parish Police Jury would have an option of signing a one-year contract for ambulance service with Pafford EMS under the terms of a new draft agreement from the company.
Pafford also pledged to install a “ring down” button in the parish 911 dispatch center prior to the proposed Jan. 1 start of the agreement. Ambulance Service Committee Chairman Charlie Edwards received the five-page draft Monday night.
Edwards said Tuesday the draft has not been reviewed by the committee’s finance panel — jury President Richard Durrett and Health Hut representative Dr. Jackie White — or by the jury’s legal counsel, Assistant District Attorney Lewis Jones.
The committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday to continue discussing how to provide ambulance and rescue service to rural parish residents when the jury’s existing contract with the Ruston Fire Department ends Dec. 31. Whatever the committee recommends must not only be vetted by Jones but also approved by the jury.
Edwards stressed the Pafford proposal is a draft and may still be tweaked further.
For the most part, the new proposal tracks one originally given to the committee on July 7. The primary difference appears to be the length of the contract. Originally, Pafford requested a fiveyear, $360,000 annual contract in exchange for providing one fully equipped Advance Life Support ambulance for use in Lincoln Parish.
But now, the term has been reduced to one year at the same $360,000 with the option to be renewed for five successive years. Pafford will also make a one-time $50,000 donation to the Lincoln Parish Fire Protection District for extraction rescue equipment.
So far, the committee has only Pafford’s proposal for ambulance service.
Pafford’s proposal further says it will offer $60 annual memberships to Lincoln Parish residents “to assist in offsetting the cost of ambulance service...” and will maintain mutual aid agreements already in place with area emergency response agencies, including RFD.
Pafford Chief Operating Officer Shane Davidson told the committee last week the company will simply add an ambulance to its area fleet to be able to respond to Lincoln Parish calls on a 24-7 basis. An ambulance will not be stationed in the parish exclusively for parish runs.
An ALS ambulance must be staffed by at least two people who meet the requirements of state and local laws where the services are being furnished, and are certified as an emergency medical technician or paramedic, according to the Code of Federal Regulations.
