Borough receives update on EMS coverage debate

As the numbers of volunteers at fire departments throughout the county continue to decline, and as money challenges make it harder for those departments to provide the services, the City of Warren has bridled at its full-time fire department having to provide its services outside of the city limits with city taxpayers subsidizing those trips.

In May 2021, Youngsville Borough was one of the municipalities that received letters from the city indicating that the city would be petitioning the state to be allowed to get out of cooperative agreements to provide ambulance service outside the city limits.

On Monday, Youngsville Borough Council received an update on possible impacts.

Solicitor Tim Bevevino said he had filed a Right To Know Request for the correspondence sent by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of EMS, to the city of Warren regarding the city providing EMS services outside of the city.

“I requested the correspondence the state sent to the city,” Bevevino said.

The letter “laid out the procedure that the city would have to go through to get out of that plan,” he said. “With all the research I’ve done recently, I haven’t been able to find anything that would (enable the city) to charge for coverage outside of the city.”

Council did not take any action on the issue.