SPRINGDALE -- The city should hire six ambulance crew to bring a fifth ambulance into service, the City Council's Committee of the Whole decided Monday.
The committee's recommendation goes to the regular council meeting for a final decision June 22.
The city's ambulance service had no ambulance immediately available 108 times between Jan. 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021, according to Fire Chief Mike Irwin. Ambulances called in from other nearby departments answered 14 of those calls but the rest were treated by firefighters until ambulances were free. All Springdale firefighters are trained as emergency medical technicians.
The city already has an ambulance available. It has two reserve ambulances for use when one of the regular vehicles is being maintained or repaired, according to Irwin. So the new crew will not require a new vehicle, committee members were told.
A new crew should be hired by Aug. 1 but will require training, Irwin said Monday night. The new ambulance should be in operation by the end of the year. The crew is expected to cost the city $359,000 a year, he said.
Irwin also asked for three battalion commander positions for the Fire Department, whose ranks have grown without an expansion of supervisors, he said. The committee agreed to consider his request at the June 22 meeting but didn't give it a recommendation Monday.
Mayor Doug Sprouse said such a request for new supervisors should be made in the regular budget process at the end of the year but made Irwin no promises his request would make the proposed budget then. The city is looking at pay raises for employees and a salary study to see if city pay is competitive in the region. The regular pay raises alone are expected to cost $1.5 million and more pay raises could result from the salary study, he said.
"I want to make it clear that if you request this in the regular budget process, it's not automatic," Sprouse said.