DVA opens Flint Base, May Spur talks with Swatz Creek

Elizabeth Shaw, 810-766-6311 or eshaw@flintjournal.com
Swartz Creek - The opening of a Flint base for DVA Ambulance may prompt Swartz Creek officials to get contract talks back on track. Genesee Medical Control Authority records show DVA opened a new 24-hour basic life support base at 727 East St. near E. Court Street and I-475 on Feb. 15. The city's 10-year contract with the ambulance service ended last March.

Word of the Flint has sparked a flurry of rumors the service may be planning to pull out of Swartz Creek. But DVA interim Director Chuck McGlinchey said the new base means just the opposite. Flint Fire Department staff reductions and the resulting higher demand for outside responders helped prompt the not for-profit corporation to increase its presence there, McGlinchey said.

"The unit for Swartz Creek kept getting called into Flint under the medical control protocols," he said. "By putting a vehicle there, we're not taking one out of Swartz Creek so much."

The new base also will add much-needed revenue, he said. "If we want to continue to be viable in areas like Durand and Swartz Creek, we need to look at other options to increase call volume, to make the company as a whole more viable."
Swartz Creek City Councilman Don Adams and fire Chief Brent Cole confirmed an ambulance still is housed at the Public Safety Building and is responding to local runs.

"I'm not sticking my head in the sand and saying the it couldn't happen, but it looks to me they're trying to do what's right by us while possibly taking more in the City of Flint," said Adams. "I'd say it's a smart business move on their part to subsidize their lower call-volume areas.

"But I definitely think it's a sign our council need to get off the pot and do something with getting a contract on the table." Since 1990, Swartz Creek has provided DVA quarters in its Public Safety Building for $1 a year in exchange for assurances of round-the-clock ambulance service.

But concerns about billing charges and response times prompted the council to defer contract renewal last March while they solicited bid proposals. The move sparked rumors that the city was ousting DVA.

One of the biggest issues was DVA's answering calls in other areas - a situation then-Director Bob Loiselle said was impossible to avoid given Swartz Creek's low volume of about 210 calls a year. By contrast, McGlinchey estimates the Flint bases will generate about 1,500 runs a year.

In September, the council ordered a feasibility study to explore the possibility of creating a municipal ambulance service. By year's end, the two entities had come no closer to ending contract negotiations. Adams said representatives haven't met since the January resignation of former City Manager Robert Meseus, who was heading up the talks for the city.
"We still need to finish the feasibility study and the last word was DVA wanted a $50,000 subsidy to stay in Swartz Creek," Adams said. "I think we need to discuss that quite a bit before anyone can say what's a fair price."

McGlinchey said most Shiawassee County communities have a $25-per-household special assessment for ambulance service. Adding a subsidy to the package might make more companies interested in a Swartz Creek base, Adams said, and could give the city the right to request run reports, another ongoing issue.

"People in Swartz Creek like DVA and them to be here," Adams said. "At the same time, the council has an obligation to make sure that performance standards are being met, regardless of which company that is." Interim City Manager Paul Bueche will report on the issue at Monday's council meeting.