ANDOVER – Small communities and townships have been fighting a daily battle in their attempts to provide fire and emergency medical services coverage for their residents.
Andover Village Council members and Community Care Ambulance were able to wade through a slight misunderstanding to reach an agreement on a contract to cover the community during a regular council meeting on Tuesday, April 14.
Through the agreement, Community Care will provide EMS services for the Village of Andover, Andover Township, Wayne Township and Williamsfield Township.
Council granted Village Administrator Richard Mead authority to sign the agreement once a contract signed by the other townships is provided.
Under the agreement, a minimum of two of the communities have to agree to leave the agreement for it to be allowed. Should that happen, the other communities will also lose their EMS coverage.
Community Care had been operating without a signed contract since the beginning of the year.
Andover Village Council was hesitant to sign the contract because Village Solicitor Cris Newcomb had advised it that a separate contract was needed unless there was a governing board in place regarding the agreement.
“As a village, we have a whole different set of rules,” Councilman Richard Orahood said.
Chris Brook, director of customer relations for Community Care, was adamant that the agreement that was reached did not form a district.
“What I’m trying to do is to get you guys to pool your money together, pool everything together, because what you’re doing now, on separate contracts, everybody can run off on their own at any point in time, if they want to,” Brook said. “If one person pulls out of this, and we don’t have a cohesive group requiring us all to make an agreement, or us all not to, then one person can leave and this whole thing crumbles.”
“The way things are going right now in this area, and in other areas, you need to come together and make sure you have something locked in for two years and then figure out what you could do in those two years if you want to do something different,” Brook continued. “I think going independent like this is very dangerous.”
The contract, using language provided by Newcomb, was signed by the trustees in Andover, Wayne and Williamsfield townships.
“The contract that was sent over is just between the village and CCAN, it doesn’t include the other townships,” Newcomb said.
Brook maintained that the contract that was signed by the other townships was the one using Newcomb’s language.
“We talked about that, having everyone sign one contract and coming together on one contract,” Brook said. “That’s where I thought we were at. We did use your contract as you drafted it, and had everybody sign it on the village’s language. It’s the village’s language and their contract, but everybody else has signed.”
Newcomb told him the Village of Andover needed to sign a separate contract.
“Andover is not participating in it with the other townships. They want a separate, standalone contract,” Newcomb said. “That was communicated to me as the directive from council.”
Brook told council that Community Care needed all of the communities to sign one contract.
“We really needed them all under one, so I didn’t know what we could do,” Brook said. “We’re going into April. We don’t have a contract operating currently in the in the village or in the townships, really, because it’s all under one, we’re consolidating it all to one. We currently don’t have a contract.”
Andover Village Council agreed to the contract, the problem was that a Council of Governments was necessary if the village were to enter into an agreement with the communities.
“In my opinion, you have to create a council of governments,” Newcomb said. “There has to be a governing board where each person, each entity, has its own representative sitting on a separate board that’s administering the contract. The village’s specific negotiations did not like the idea of one entity pulling out of it and the contract being null and void and changing. I have to consider what is brought into this village as their own money to be used under a separate Home Rule power than townships have under the code. A village operates strictly under a different set of rules and millages. We didn’t like that one township could pull out and we can’t then operate under a contract.”
Brook told Newcomb that Community Care was in the same predicament.
“If one person pulls out, we can’t operate either,” Brook said. “That’s why we need to be under one contract, that it’s all in one agreement, so that we have something solidified and we know that we’re set, we’re safe for the next two years.”
The operating agreement is critical for the communities involved.
“The areas that we have around here are just crumbling, and a lot of other areas are, they don’t have coverage,” Brook said. “To go the way we’re going is very dangerous, and it’s catastrophic to this area.”
Brook told council that Community Care would have to end the contract should even one community pull out.
“Like we talked before, if we had one pull out, we can’t be here anymore,” Brook said. “We can’t keep dwindling it down. It has to be as a whole.”
The agreement is meant to provide stability for the four communities involved.
“This is not a district,” Brook said. “This is only everyone saying, ‘Yep, I’ve got this much money. Yep, I got this much money. Yep, we’re going to throw it in a pool and we’re going to guarantee an ambulance for the next two years.’ That’s all this is. That’s all it is. It’s creating a is creating a stable environment for you and something you can count on for the next two years, and one person can’t make the decision to leave because they get upset.”
“One person can’t make the decision,” Brook continued. “This is requiring two of the four to make the decision. Two of the four have to agree for someone to leave, that way you have security in it, knowing that someone’s not just going to take off and bail on you and leave you with nothing.”
Brook told council that if even one community pulls out of the agreement, Community Care will completely pull out of the area.
“I’m trying to protect you guys,” Brook said. “This is a bad contract for us. This isn’t a good contract for us. We’re going to lose money on this contract, but what I’m trying to do is to help this area so that we can get a two-year pass to try and get you guys something for the next two years before you guys can make a decision on what you have to do moving forward, or something else.”
“(If one community leaves) I’m done, I’m canceling the contract on you,” Brook said. “I can’t afford it. I can’t afford it. We’re at a loss right now of about $50,000 to $60,000 currently, and we’re going to operate at that loss to try and keep things going.”
Ultimately, Newcomb told the councilmembers the decision belonged to them and signing the agreement was not against the rules and regulations.
Understanding that the communities and Community Care were all in a difficult position, council agreed to authorize Mead to sign the agreement.
