An agreement between the City of Warren and a five-municipality emergency medical services commission is one step closer to going into effect.

Clarendon Borough as well as Mead, Pleasant, Cherry Grove and Sheffield townships banded together earlier this year to form a multi-municipal EMS commission.

Back in October, the Warren City Council approved its end of the agreement that would see the city provide EMS service in that region from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Council approved an amendment to that agreement that increased the ground miles traveled before an “excess mileage fee” is applied. The action included an effective date of Jan. 1, 2023 or the “date of execution,” whichever occurs later.

Officials told the Times Observer that the goal is to have the arrangement in place by Jan. 1. The commission meets Dec. 21.

Fire Chief Dave Krogler noted that the change “would not have a significant impact” to the overall arrangement.

The challenge to agreements such as these for the last couple years has been the dollars and cents. The reimbursement from insurance or Medicare/Medicaid hasn’t covered, the city claims, their costs for responding outside the city limits.

The agreement would leave those funding streams in place but require the municipality — which is the entity legally required to provide EMS services in its boundaries — to pay additionally for the response.

The rate in the agreement would see the municipality where a call originates pay the city $300 for a response or $150 for a dispatch where they were told to turn around enroute.

Call volume is projected at between 380 and 410 which brings the cost of the agreement, based on the type of call, between $57,000 and $115,000 annually.

“I think it’s absolutely remarkable this level of collaboration between municipal governments,” Councilman John Wortman said Monday, suggesting that a joint signing of the agreement “would only encourage” future collaboration.