Athens County Emergency Medical Services is reorganizing its EMS services, as many potential EMTs are finding other, similar careers more appealing.
Athens County, mirroring a national trend of people moving away from the Emergency Medical Technician field, recently had two employees leave for other jobs, Director of Athens County EMS Rick Callebs said at the Athens County Commissioners meeting Thursday.
“There are a lot of things in play,” Callebs said. “The education requirement is increasing, it’s a very physical job, and it’s usually a young man’s job.”
EMTs work between 48 and 72 hours per week at about $12 an hour, Callebs said.
Nursing, among others, is a profession that, to many, seems more appealing to those interested in the field, as nursing pays more per hour, has better opportunities to move up in the field, and is easier on the body than EMS work, Callebs said.
Callebs said county EMS is working on a project that would fund the education of those already employed by EMS under the condition they return to work for county EMS as a paramedic.
Some smaller towns in and around the county, such as Homer Township in Morgan County, which has between 30 and 40 ambulance “runs” every year, often cannot afford to have their own EMS service, so they contract with Athens.
Costs of EMS services to other counties will not take up Athens County taxpayer money, Callebs said.
Later in the meeting, County Commissioners and Athens County Friends of the Shelter Dogs reached an agreement regarding funding for spaying and neutering dogs.
Typically, Friends of the Shelter Dogs does not spay and neuter unregistered pets, but since the group received a substantial donation recently, it was decided that the donation could be used to do so.
The project is aimed at lower-class individuals who may not have the money to spay and neuter dogs, Athens Commissioner Chris Chmiel said.
One of Chmiel’s priorities during his tenure is to organize and write down more of the commissioners’ dealings with Friends of the Shelter Dogs, as conflict has arisen between the county dog warden and the organization in the past, Chmiel said.
“We’re going to do some negotiating and get written policies in place to remove ambiguity,” Chmiel said. “Hopefully in the process we will eliminate the conflict. We’re all on the same team.”
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