Set-up difficulties slow switch of Sewickley Township to different ambulance service

Sewickley Township residents continue to have local ambulance coverage, but it's not the Jeannette ambulance service that township supervisors had wanted to begin operations by June 1, officials said.

The Jeannette EMS Inc., which Sewickley Township supervisors had designated as the municipality's official ambulance service as of June 1, may not open until sometime between June 10 and 17, Supervisor Wanda Layman said Sunday.

An office trailer that the township is renting for the Jeannette EMS Inc. has been set up at the municipal building property along Mars Hill Road, but the facility does not have telephone service, Layman said.

The supervisor said the trailer provided by the township has electrical service.

When Jeannette EMS begins operations, it will be able to place its ambulance in one of the township-owned garages, Layman said.

Michael Cafasso, operations manager for Jeannette EMS, said last week that preparations were continuing on setting up a base in Sewickley Township, but he had not yet determined when it would occupy that base. That station would be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Cafasso said.

The township supervisors decided in April to designate the Jeannette EMS to replace the Sewickley Township Community Ambulance Service as the official ambulance service because of concerns about the financial viability of the Community Ambulance Service. Supervisor Joseph Kerber failed at the board's May meeting to get that switch in ambulance service providers delayed by six months.

The Community Ambulance Service continues to answer emergency calls and maintains 24-hour-a-day coverage, said Gary Moore, a supervisor with the Rostraver/West Newton Emergency Services, which has an operational partnership with the Community Ambulance Service.

“We've noticed people are calling for us,” Moore said.

The Community Ambulance Service continues to operate from its station on Medic Street in Herminie, the municipally owned base it is renting under a 99-year lease with Sewickley Township.

The township supervisors wanted Community Ambulance Service to move out of the base when the supervisors decided in April to certify the Jeannette EMS as the official provider of ambulance services.

Latrobe attorney Daniel Hewitt, Sewickley Township solicitor, was to meet with Anthony L. Rosner, Community Ambulance Service's attorney, to discuss the dispute over the occupancy of the ambulance service base. Layman declined to comment on that issue, saying it is in the hands of the attorneys.

The Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety is processing documents from the Sewickley Township Supervisors that establishes Jeannette EMS as the township's official ambulance service provider, Dan Stevens, a Public Safety Department spokesman, said last week.

When the Jeannette EMS begins operations in Sewickley Township, Stevens said that the 911 emergency dispatching center would dispatch the Jeannette EMS to calls, even if a person requests Sewickley Township's ambulance service.

“Patient care is first and foremost. No matter what, they will have one, maybe two ambulances” dispatched to an emergency, Stevens said.

“We err on the side of safety,” Stevens added.

State law requires the county dispatching center to send the officially designated ambulance provided to the scene of an emergency.

Many people are confused by recent events that have created a situation in which Sewickley Township will have two ambulance service providers, Moore said.

The Sewickley Township ambulance service has received one-year subscriptions from about 60 percent of the township's population, and that money will remain with the Community Ambulance Service to provide coverage, Moore said.

Those subscriptions took effect March 1, Moore said.

Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.