Clark Township voted 266-60 in the Tuesday, May 5, election to approve a five-year, 0.75 millage proposal to fund hiring full-time emergency service workers in the Clark Township Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The millage funds will allow the corps to hire at least two emergency service technicians as full-time employees or to contract services through a third-party contractor to work the day shift, from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The millage will provide about $139,000 to the corps each year.

The ambulance corps needs at least two full-time employees to cover 130 working hours a week, because it's becoming increasingly difficult to get volunteers to cover every shift, ambulance Captain Kathy Kasper said. of its 20 volunteers are looking to retire or relocate, she said.

Under state law, at least one emergency medical technician (EMT) and one medical first responder are required to be on hand 24 hours a day for the ambulance to be able to respond to a call, otherwise the corps could lose its license to provide emergency medical services.

"We have a great group of responders. It's not like the ambulance is not going to come," Mrs. Kasper said. "We have tons of time to do this right. We're still in the initial planning phases." The millage taxes won't start to be collected until December 1, and won't be available to the corps until July 1, 2010.

The corps is working with the township to contact third-party contractors in the region to see if their services would be available. A thirdparty contractor would handle scheduling, payroll, and insurance of its employees to cover the day shift, leaving ambulance corps volunteers to sign up to work the remaining night and weekend shifts. Mrs. Kasper said it is likely that a third-party contractor would hire current volunteers to work for them full-time.

The other option corps and township

officials are researching is hiring current volunteers as full or parttime

township employees. Hiring several volunteers to work one or two days a week would allow corps members to continue working at their regular jobs, Mrs. Kasper said.

The ambulance corps, which also provides coverage to the southern portion of Marquette Township because it is the closest life support agency, responded to 193 emergency calls in 2008.

"The call volume increases every year," Mrs. Kasper said.

EMTs are trained to assess and perform medical procedures as necessary until the patient can be transferred to a hospital. Medical first responders have completed a certain number of training hours in emergency first aid and basic life support.

Mrs. Kasper is excited that township voters approved the millage and hopes when emergency staff is hired full-time, more volunteers will come forward.

"Our community has always been extremely supportive of EMS and fire services," she said.