There’s no silver bullet to solving the emergency medical services crisis in Warren County.

But that doesn’t mean a focus on the issue in recent months isn’t producing some positive steps forward.

One of the outgrowths of those discussions was a new county-wide response plan aimed at improving staffing. While the regional EMS coordinator that will oversee that plan is a post that is still open, progress is still being made.

“(There) are some agencies that have started reporting out of service” to the 911 center in accordance with the plan, Public Safety Director Ken McCorrison said during Thursday’s Council of Governments Fire Services Committee meeting.

He said that the Sugar Grove Volunteer Fire Department has “started scheduling and is calling out of service” and that Clarendon has “started (going) out of service during daytime hours until 5 p.m. in the evening.”

McCorrison stressed that this is a “positive step” because it allows dispatchers the ability to “directly go to another agency and make sure someone that is available gets on the road quickly.”

“Boots on the ground is what we’re missing, we know that,” Committee chair Paul Pascuzzi said.

Pascuzzi highlighted the multi-municipal emergency services commission formed by Clarendon Borough and Pleasant, Mead, Sheffield and Cherry Grove townships, noting that the intergovernmental agreements were approved to create the entity.

“We’ll be looking for a solution in that neighborhood,” he said. “We hope to have something for our community that is going to be a huge success and it’s going to take some time.”

Pascuzzi said other municipalities are welcome to join the effort.

One municipality with an ambulance service has yet to sign on to the response plan and that’s the City of Warren, which has threatened to no longer respond to calls outside the city limits.

Fire Chief Dave Krogler told the group that city officials have met with officials with Clarendon and Pleasant.

“We’re willing to work and talk with anybody,” he stressed.

State Senator Scott Hutchinson joined the meeting virtually and provided a legislative update while acknowledging that meetings like the Fire Services Committee are become more common.

“It’s important work and it’s hard work,” he stressed to the local officials on hand. “You are appreciated whether you know it or not.”