There’s good news and bad news on the topic of emergency medical services in Warren County.

The good news?

Membership in a multi-municipal emergency medical services commission continues to grow with the addition of Tidioute, Deerfield, Triumph, Limestone and Eldred as well as Howe. in Forest County. That’s outstanding growth. Having an EMS commission can create a vehicle to help deal with some of the issues facing the region’s first responders.

Sometimes the first step is having all of the necessary players at the table to discuss solutions to issues – and the growth of the EMS Commission’s membership is encouraging from that vantage point.

The bad news?

The commission is probably going to have some serious work on its plate sooner than it thought. At the same meeting that Council of Government members heard the good news about the EMS Commission’s membership growth, members learned it’s possible some fire departments are possibly going to be going out of service during the day due to manpower concerns.

That means solutions to the volunteer fire department membership crisis have to be found sooner than later.

Like we said there’s good news and bad news.