County residents should be gratified to hear that Warren County is ahead of the curve in dealing with its shortage of EMS workers.

That’s a credit to the foresight the area’s emergency services providers and local elected officials have shown for the past several years as the availability of EMTs and volunteer firefighters dwindled locally.

For the most part response times are an acceptable 14 minutes. The EMS commission in the southwest portion of Warren County is a model worth emulating throughout the rest of the county and the county’s ambulance stock is solid.

That’s all evidence of the good work that has been done. This isn’t the time to rest on our laurels.

As consultant Ron Hellendall noted during a recent meeting, there is still work to be done – including figuring out the best way to add some paid staff into the emergency response mix along with volunteers. And, it’s vitally important to keep an influx of volunteer firefighters and EMTs coming into the system because our county can’t afford to have paid EMS scattered throughout the county.

One way to help pay for improvements to the system is to form a countywide EMS authority. To work properly all municipalities in the county, as well as all the volunteer fire departments, would have to join.

Having an authority will make it easier to find grant funding and, more importantly, allow greater coordination between departments. With our manpower already limited, the last thing anyone wants is to see a lack of coordination waste that manpower.

An authority with a paid manager could help provide the direction needed on a day-to-day basis to help manage coverage areas to keep response times as low as possible while other plans are put into place.

After years of discussions, the release of this countywide EMS study is a light at the end of a long, long tunnel. There will be more talks coming in the months and years ahead – but a plan is taking shape.