OH MY LORD!!!! Not only is EMS’s response mind numbing, I can’t believe that the “idiot” who wrote it would be so stupid as to do it in writing!

We are going to take the ambulance that got kicked out of the fire department, and park it somewhere we hope to get a call so we can justify it. When will we wake up and realize that this agency is run by CRAZY people?

Roving ambulance? With oil and gas prices again on the rise?

What genius thought up that remedy?
EMS better get an appropriate location soon. Roamin and rovin ain’t the answer.

EDITOR NOTE–They said they would not necessarily be moving when they rove.

Why not just let all the fire departments run the EMS system? Oh by the way, EMS stands for “Earn money sleeping”.

Yes, lets have fire run EMS, and policemen do the garbage right? How about teachers run our kids around from home and back, doctors could bring us our prescriptions. I am sorry I don’t see the skills used to put out fires correlating to skills doing EMS.

Look back at previous posts if you can’t remember why EMS got kicked out of the station they had on Overland. The same kind of thing probably would happen again in ten or twenty years when the Fire Dept got the itch for a new station in southwest Boise. Lets evict EMS, not take their full market value offer on a piece of realty, and then throw them under the bus on response times cause they don’t have a place to stay in this district. Perhaps poor planing on the county’s part is a very good assessment, this should be directed to the commisioners.

EMS administration is not an elected position. EMS can’t do much of anything with out say so from the commisioners, this is where the focus of blame should be. Have you ever tried to get the three commisioners on the same page? Tried to get them to agree with any mayor or city council? What realistically can EMS do? Pay four hundred some odd thousand for another station they may or may not get kicked out of. If I recall correctly EMS’s original share was to be roughly $180,000 when it was first proposed. Sounded great to THAT EMS administraion, and THAT set of commisioners.

Witney and Boise spent two to three years before breaking ground for what reasons I do not know. Okay now EMS your share is four hundred some odd thousand dollars. Price went up, Commisioners change, EMS administration changed, Fire Depts throw EMS under the bus by not taking a fair market offer for a fire station in hopes of turning a profit. Now if EMS had paid that amount. But wait now what if Witney decides that it wants the station back and gets out of its contract with Boise FD and then kicks out EMS, same problem.

EMS would have NO ownership of such a station. EMS has to learn to take care of themselves. If you look at your tax dollars, EMS takes about $15 to $20 per household on average per year. How about the fire dept? can’t kind find it on your tax bill can you, its $200 to $400 depending on where you live in the county. Fire Departments cost more period end of sentance. I pay more than $50 per year for a library? I pay more for mosquito abatement than for EMS. No I don’t want higher taxes, but what do you want. If you want faster EMS, PAY FOR IT. Tell the commisioners, not the poor EMS fellas trying to save you, not the local paper, not the Guardian, The commisioners.

Tank, the EMS administration “crawled” under the bus on their own without ANY help at all! If you look at the last 10-15 years, the EMS has tried to become a “stand-alone agency” that is first and foremost completly independant of any other agency.

Just look at the seperate headquarters on Glenwood and the fierce attempts at garnering tax support to insure their independance. EMS has gone out of their way to seperate themselves from the Fire department,(just look at some of your examples). The holier than thou attitude that the EMS administration has had, not the front line paramedics, has come full circle to bite them in the butt. It is time to meld the EMSA with the fire department and move on as a county.

The lack of a station is the result of the City of Boise’s/BFDs mis management of the situation, and their desire to bend ACP over a barrel to make up for the loss, than ACP’s “shafting the fire department”.

The detailed discussion is HERE (for those with short memories):

https://boiseguardian.com/2006/12/10/ada_ems_stiffs_fire_departments.html

The short version is :

BFD/Boise city wanted a ton of money to move into a property they would have no ownership over, no say in, and could be evicted at any time. It was more money than originally discussed, and was never formally agreed to in the first place.

In short, as typical, BFD/Boise city, was trying to take advantage of another agency in a bad situation.

As I understand it, ACP has many options on the table they have been working on since BEFORE they moved out, but the speed of bureaucracy, zoning, conditional use permits, as well as trying to be judicious with taxpayer dollars (which is what led to this in the first place) and such is keeping them from moving forward as fast as they would like.

Of course the typical naysayers are bashing again, ignoring the big picture and the fact that BFD (and to some extent the Whitney Fire District who applied pressure for ACP to vacate on behalf of a pissed of BFD administration, IMHO) is as much or more to blame in this situation as ACP.

Is the situation ideal? NO. Is it the best it can be…yes ..at least without handing over to BFD (bribing?) almost 400K for basically nothing, with no security, and a proven record of hostility (just look at Station 8).

ACP’s budget does not compare to any FDs in the county, they have to be more frugal with tax payers dollars, and sometimes that means tough choices.

Finally, ACP has had a stance that they would be willing to merger with the ENTIRE counties FDs into ONE agency, but splitting up ACP between the FD’s only serves the FDs, NOT the PATIENTS, NOT the TAXPAYERS, and not good for a SYSTEM APPROACH to MEDICINE…which is what is needed. (Can you hear me in the back???)

This discussion is an extension of the FDs EMS bashing. WHEN The FDs stop playing turf wars with both EMS and each other….and talk seriously about consolidation…then that will be an interesting day. Until then the only agency worried about the WHOLE county (and not labor politics) is ACP.

Just a couple of comments about the new fire station. Ada County accepted an agreement to move into the new station for a price of $180,000. Plans were drawn up and from there the station was set to go. The plans were drawn up with everyone having their own bedroom, separate offices for fire and ems, but Ada County didn’t like the plans and asked them to be redrawn.

Something to the effect of needing their own TV room, anyway you know how long plans take to get redrawn, can’t just go place a room someplace, you have to reengineer the whole plan, so bids for lumber and steel and copper all go up, when the new bids came back and ada countys portion is $400,000 they decide to back out of the agreement. To the point about Whitney commissioners not accepting a bid Ada county gave them for the grounds that Fire Sta. 21 sits on. I believe they gave an offer of about $400,000 for the property based on last year’s appraised value. We all know that a developer is going to pay close to a million dollars for that site. The Whitney commissioners are not firefighters or paramedics, they are looking out for the good of the Whitney district.

I believe Ada Commissioners are looking out for an Organization and not for the people of Ada County. I gave them credit for looking out for their employees right up untill the point they passed the at will employees act.

EDITOR NOTE–If the commishes have $400,000 to buy an old station, it seems like they would be better advised to put it into the new one with changes and sign an iron-clad deal in the process.

Private business:

If I were to tell my boss, “Yeah, by the way, I kind of forgot to get a contract signed with our partner in the project… and now we have to come up with $372,000, immediately.” My boss would instantly reply, “You’re fired.”

City government:

City manager, “Don’t worry, we have unlimited funds, we’ll just increase taxes to cover the shortfall.”

Absolutely no accountability, whatsoever. Disgusting.

A couple of comments:

RE: the OLD Boise fire station 2, It was my understanding talking with the Old Guys that ACPs movement into that station was a favor to BFD. Apparently…and Dave you have been around long enough to confirm this…that when the NEW station 2 was built and BFD was ready to move in, the North End Neighborhood Assn got very upset about losing their EMT response in the heart of the North End. The result was some old fashioned political back scratching and “Medic 57” was born, or moved to the OLD station 2 depending on the version of events.
As I understand it, if Medic 57 was to move out BFD would HAVE to staff this station (although I don’t know why, some kind of conditional use permit).

RE: The “TV Room” If I remember correctly (I could be wrong) it was for a room to complete required paperwork and charting, which required computers, desks, and other administrative paraphernalia. By keeping it away from the entertainment and relaxation area it promotes productivity.

Given the priceless service provided by Ada County’s paramedics, it is obvious they all deserve to be stationed somewhere other than on a street corner.

Most Ada County medics work 24-hour shifts. Do you want a paramedic coming for your emergency if he or she has been either on calls, or sitting in an ambulance, for the past 23 hours? I know I don’t, and I live in the area covered by this crew.

It’s time we see some appropriate leadership coming out of Ada County EMS. It starts with the department director, and ends with the Ada County commissioners. Instead of spending time and energy trying to conquer provision of all emergency medical services within the County, that time and energy would be much better spent resolving the station issue in the Southwest area.

Nemo, your version of how Medic 57 was born is inacurrate. Fire Chief Ross spoke to then ACEMS Director, Fred Nelson and received a verbal commitement that they would move the current Medic 53, located where 58 is today by SLRMC, to the 17th and Ridenbaugh location. This request was precipitated by North End Neighborhood association President Kay Hummel’s complaint of service degradation that would occur by the fire engine moving to the Cartwright location.

As a result a conditional use permit was imposed requiring that the same level of service or greater would be required before the fire engine could be moved. Upon completion of the new Cartwright fire station Mr. Nelson advised that SLRMC didn’t want him to move the ambulance therefore they would be staying at their current location. This news of course caused quite a problem in that the engine could not be moved to the new station. As a result, the fire station remained completed and vacant for a couple of months while Chief Ross and the Boise Firefighters Union put together proposals to address the problem.

Chief Ross was able to get Mr. Nelson to agree to a part time staffing of the Ridenbaugh location but again was unable to get him to follow through on their previous agreement. Therefore, at a Boise City council meeting Chief Ross proposed to place a brush fire apparatus in the old station location during the hours that Medic 53 would not be present.

The union proposed a BLS ambulance to be stationed there. Unfortunately, labor / management relations within the fire department were poor and Chief Ross disagreed with the union’s projected cost numbers at the council meeting. During the same meeting several ACEMS members and their medical director testified as to how horrible service would be if they weren’t the ones to provide it, et al. At the conclusion of the meeting Boise City Council member Paula Forney praised the firefighters union for coming up with a solution to the problem and charged both the fire Chief and the union with sitting down and working out the numbers to an agreeable amount to return to the council with. Shortly after hearing the council and mayors comments regarding their eagerness to revisit the BLS ambulance concept, Medic 57 was born eliminating the need.

EDITOR NOTE–Glad I didn’t try to explain that one!