Paratech will help provide coverage seven days a week
By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn Common Council voted in favor of a contract with Paratech at its Dec. 19 meeting, under which Paratech will provide personnel to staff both EMS and fire services for the city.
Details of the quote provided by Fire Chief Rod Smith were ironed out at the City of Elkhorn Finance and Judicial Committee’s Dec. 12 meeting, at which time, the committee voted 3-0 in favor of recommending approval of the contract.
At that meeting, Fire Chief Rod Smith said the original quote for coverage from Paratech to provide four people, 12 hours per day, five days a week for $310,000 had changed; however, he said it changed in the city’s favor.
In negotiating with Paratech, Smith said the new contract put the city in a position to keep contracted employees down to 40 hours each week, with no scheduled overtime, saving the city a large amount of money while also providing coverage six days a week. Additionally, Smith said even at providing coverage six days a week, there is still money left over within the originally budgeted $310,000 that would allow for the city to add another shift, guaranteeing the department has at least two firefighter/EMTs in the barn 24 hours a day.
“We would always be staffed with two people,” Smith said. “So, we shouldn’t have to rely on Paratech to give us another employee or another charge to make us a legal transport, since you have to have two EMTs to transport.”
He said savings of about $66,000 over the original contract would allow the city to add a fifth position, something he said would improve service even further.
Smith said with the setup provided under the contract with Paratech, the hope is that it will carry the city for 5 to 10 years down the road.
“Hopefully we can stay in the frame, and keep the citizens of our community safe by providing a service where there will always be somebody there all the time to answer their needs,” Smith said.
Mayor Howie Reynolds asked with the city previously being unable to answer calls because of low staffing levels how much the city would save with the additional staffing.
Smith said the city previously was unable to respond to about 20 percent of the 1,500 to 1,600 calls, at a cost of $125 each.
“I didn’t do that math on that, but it’s a significant amount of money that we hopefully can save,” he said.
Smith also said coverage availability also depends on when calls come in, adding that with that number of calls, there will still be times where there is more than one call at a time and the city will still have to rely on service from Paratech. Smith said the department will also continue it’s paid-on-call volunteers program.
“They’re still a vital cog in our department’s success,” he said. “We’re going to continue to keep them to help us out.”
Smith said with skilled professionals on staff, it will likely lead to higher turnout from paid-on-call volunteers as well, as newer volunteers who are still refining their skills can work alongside skilled professionals.
Alderman Hoss Rehberg asked with the contract only slated for one year, what kind of rate increase the city might be looking at in the future, noting he doesn’t want to start this program only to face a 10 to 12 percent increase in the future.
Smith said Paratech raised its rates about 2 percent from last year, however, that was because the department raised wages for its employees by 2 percent and Paratech raised the contracted employee’s wages to match those of Elkhorn.
“As far as the company itself taking a wage increase, I don’t believe they did,” Smith said. “It was just for their employees.”
Rehberg also asked what the cost to supply uniforms to contracted employees would be. Smith said that cost falls between $50 and $100, and is something they’re already supplying now for paid-on-call. Smith said the department has spare turnout gear for contracted employees with and a purchase would likely not be needed.
Under the contract, any contracted employees would be paid time-and-a-half for additional training on non-scheduled days exceeding their scheduled work hours. In response to Rehberg asking how often this would likely happen, Smith said the department has one training per month. As a result, it would likely result in at most three to four employees falling under this condition, providing it’s not their shift to work, and only on a one night basis each month.
Rehberg also asked if it would be possible to do a longer contract. Smith said the city probably could, though he was unsure if there would be savings, because the entire program is contingent on whether or not Paratech is able to fill the positions.
“They have posted for it,” Smith said. “We hope to have it up and running, have the training done, and our goal is to have it online April 1.”
Smith said he was pleased with how the contract turned out.
“I’m very satisfied,” he said. “To provide coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I think that’s a tremendous asset for our community. It’s guaranteed we’re going to get somebody out.”
