The Washington City Council took a step toward establishing a city emergency medical services agency during their meeting Tuesday.

Mayor Jaron Rosien explained that the council formed an EMS study committee less than two years ago to examine the idea of establishing a first-responder unit under the fire department to supplement the county ambulance service. The committee’s work was somewhat delayed by the pandemic, but now City Administrator Brent Hinson says the city should be ready to start this service July 1st, “The way we have this envisioned this will be a new division within the fire department. There’ll be essentially an assistant fire chief for EMS that reports to the fire chief and is in charge of the operations of that division. Certainly it will be something that works hand in hand with our fire department and our ambulance service countywide, and I think that we’ve really come a long way and we’ve had a lot of good discussion.”

Fire Chief Brendan DeLong stated that the service would have about 20 members including firefighters and non-firefighters, and everyone would be required to have at least an Emergency Medical Responder certification, which is lower than an Emergency Medical Technician. The council approved an initial service program authorization application to be submitted to the Iowa Department of Public Health, and then they are expected to begin the formal policy process of establishing this service at their May 4th meeting.