The discussion about stressed emergency medical services shifted to municipal officials.

Public Safety Director Ken McCorrison took the discussion to municipal officials — the ones with the requirement to provide the service — at Wednesday’s COG meeting.

He asked that municipal officials “get engaged” with their ambulance service.

“There isn’t a department out there that isn’t relying on one or two key people,” McCorrison said. “The folks that are doing it are doing a fantastic job. God bless them. There aren’t many of them left.”

He again highlighted the challenge of departments going out of service during daytime hours.

“I’m just saying it’s reaching a point (with) so many out of service,” he said, the effect is “spreading the resources thing.”

He explained that the call volume then falls on another agency.

“It’s kind of a domino effect that is moving there,” he said. “It’s going to be a problem.”

To put the discussion in plainer terms, McCorrison said that it took 50 minutes to get an ambulance to a call for a patient with chest pain in Tidioute.

He added that 50 minutes is “not an uncommon occurrence.”

“It is the ultimate truth,” Rich Barrett said.

Jim Zavinski, Conewango Township’s emergency management coordinator and also an EMC said it McCorrison’s picture is an “accurate map of what I do every single day.

“What he’s saying is true,” he added.

“I don’t think anyone has an appreciation for the work EmergyCare does (in Warren County,” Paul Pascuzzi added. “I know that they’re stretched. In our situation, I don’t have a solution for it.”

McCorrison said that Starbrick’s ambulance is back in service during the day.

“Kudos to those guys for really stepping up,” he said.

While the focus might be on EMS at this point, there are signs that a similar effect is starting to appear on the fire side.

Barrett estimated fire service would follow in five years.

“That is a scary point,” he said. “How many departments can (you) get out in the daytime?”

McCorrison said a fire service went out of service due to lack of manpower for the first time in Warren County last week.

“What used to take one department,” he said, now requires four or five “to get enough people on the scene to safely handle an incident.”