Published June 12 in the Big Sandy News

Prestonsburg dispatch policy is not an attempt to cut staff, official says

By SUSAN ALLEN
Big Sandy News Floyd County Bureau

PRESTONSBURG — A new policy by the city of Prestonsburg that requires emergency dispatchers to determine if an emergency call is a “life or death” situation is not aimed at cutting city services, a council member said at a special meeting Friday.

Councilman Harry Adams said he wanted to lay to rest the “scuttlebutt” that the policy was developed to make the fire department all volunteer.

“Maybe two meetings ago, the personnel committee talked about the risks run when two or three fire trucks are around when they are not needed sometimes,” Adams said. “We decided to change the policy handbook to treat all calls the same—emergency or not an emergency. This creates an unnecessary risk to the public.”

The policy change has not been presented to the full city council for consideration.

Adams said emergency dispatchers are trained under national standards to handle emergency and medical calls. Dispatchers will decide whether to send city emergency personnel or a private ambulance to respond to emergency calls, he said.

“If it is not a true emergency, we’ll send a private ambulance,” Adams said. “We don’t want to decrease medical services but we don’t want to put the public and city employees unnecessarily at risk.”

As far as trying to turn the fire department into a volunteer organization, Adams said, “no way.”

He said the city has an excellent fire department with “excellent equipment” and that “we want to let the people of Prestonsburg know if they hear we are trying to cut back on emergency responses, that’s absolutely false.”

“If little Junior falls and scratches his knee, he doesn’t need a fire trick and two or three helpers,” Adams said.

With city policemen being cross trained as fireman, officers can handle emergencies at the scene of some wrecks, Adams said.

Mayor Jerry Fannin said the city used to have 13 firefighters but, with the cross training there are now 26 workers in the public safety department.

Council did not discuss the issue.

Friday’s special meeting was held at the Mountain Arts Center because there was an air conditioning problem at city hall and the blood center was using council’s chambers as their work station, the mayor said. 

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