The state didn’t just bring an important message to a meeting with municipal and emergency medical service leaders last week.

They brought help.

In addition to Aaron Rhone, state director of the Bureau of EMS, officials also heard from Ken Hellendall, who has been tasked by the state with evaluating the EMS system in Warren County and making recommendations for the future.

“All I want to do is bring a fresh set of eyes,” he said. “The more information I get the better.”

He stressed that he comes with no preconceived plan to make the system break even or profitable, but he did acknowledged that the system is broken.

“What we are bringing in is less than we’re putting out,” Hellendall said. “If we were running a business, we’d go bankrupt.”

Statewide, the number of EMTs has dropped by over 6,000 since 2012.

“People aren’t getting into this,” Hellendahl said, “and people just aren’t doing it. We need to fix it before we aren’t going to be able to take care of people.”

Both Hellendall and Rhone outlined a big concern — it’s younger people that are leaving the system.

“That’s the next generation of chiefs,” Hellendall said. “If you don’t have good leaders… then you’re not going to have an EMS service…. Municipal leaders, if you’re not scared, you should be. Everybody has to work together. If we don’t all work together, we will fail.”

He did comment on one specific issue with the EMS system in the county – departments not always calling out of service, thus delaying response.

Hellendall called it “unconscionable to me and I can’t imagine why it’s happening” and said it is a “huge liability. That will be in the study. You need to fix that today.”

It was also clear that he’s willing to offend where needed.

“If I’m offending you, you’re probably one of the people that needs to change,” he said. “We are beyond the days of ‘what color the truck is.’ I don’t care if you like the chief next door… work it out. We seem to have forgotten it’s not about us. It’s about the people we’re taking care of. We need to get back to that.”