When a severe storm strikes or a tornado watch is issued, Harford County residents have gotten used to receiving a phone, text or email message from county emergency manager Rick Ayers, informing them about the situation and advising them about safety precautions.
They are likely, however, to get fewer such messages in the future because of concerns they aren't being taken seriously, particularly by some younger residents.
The county is also set to spend more to subsidize its privately operated, paid ambulance service, but won't be increasing its contributions to local volunteer fire and ambulance companies under the FY 2016 budget proposed by County Executive Barry Glassman.
Harford residents can sign up to receive messages by phone, text or email when there is a weather or other emergency, but the Department of Emergency Services has been trying to send them out only for the most critical incidents, the department's leader said.
If the department sends out too many messages through the system, known as Connect Cty, people may start to ignore them, Emergency Services Director Edward Hopkins told members of the Harford County Council, as they reviewed his department's new budget last week.
"When you hear from Rick Ayers, know that the sky is falling – and I mean that as a joke, but we really need people to pay attention," Hopkins said.
The department sees a big difference between younger people, who "see the call as a waste of time" and are connected to their mobile devices, and others who enjoy the phone messages, he said.
"We believe it's a redundant system," he said of the concept of sending out messages on multiple platforms.
EMS Foundation funding
The Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Foundation Inc., which provides a paid ambulance service that supplements the ambulances operated by the county's regular volunteer fire and ambulance companies, is due to receive an additional $150,000 in county funding in the next budget.
The foundation's county funding, which was also reviewed by the council last Wednesday, will increase about 5 percent to $2,797,814. The foundation operates as a private entity, as do each of the county's volunteer fire and ambulance companies.
Jeff Shearman, representing the foundation, said they plan to give employees a 3 percent cost-of-living increase. That's a bigger pay increase than Glassman proposed for the county's regular employees, who will receive $1,000 merit raises in the next budget.
"We felt it important to provide EMS Foundation employees with a 3 percent COLA this year," Shearman told the council, explaining one of the primary reasons for the raises is "the people we have are dedicated, committed and hard-working individuals, some who have been with the organization since it started in 2006."
Shearman said the organization hopes to encourage its part-time providers to stay in Harford and work for the foundation instead of going elsewhere, noting jurisdictions like Baltimore City and Baltimore County offer "lucrative dollars" for overtime work.
Shearman said a 3 percent increase will also be rolled into reimbursements for three volunteer fire companies that have paid EMS staff: Bel Air, Aberdeen and Joppa-Magnolia.
He also said the foundation hopes to use its "chase cars" more efficiently after an audit showed the foundation could improve in that area.
"Chase cars," normally large-frame SUVs equipped with advanced life support equipment, are used by the foundation to respond to calls to augment responses by fire and ambulance companies, particularly in the northern end of the county, Rich Gardiner, spokesperson for the Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Association, explained.
Gardiner said the foundation has historically had two chase cars and is going to add a third. Glassman noted when he unveiled his budget last month that some of the increased funding for the foundation would be for an additional chase car, which Gardiner said will be based at the Fallston Volunteer Fire & Ambulance Company's substation at Upper Crossroads to serve the northwestern area of the county.
Dave Williams, a member of the Fallston VFAC and a member of the County Council Citizens' Advisory Committee, pointed out to the council that other than the ambulance and emergency medical personnel showing up at a resident's door when needed, nobody has really quantified the cost of providing those services in the county.
According to its most recent available audit, which covers the 12 months that ended June 30, 2014, the Fire and EMS Foundation had total revenues of $3,639,696, of which $2,647,814 came directly from Harford County and $895,000 was from insurance reimbursements and collections from patients. The foundation had $3,481,564 in expenses, including about $2.7 million for program operations and $791,000 for management.
Volunteer company funding
The county will provide $6,724,542 in funding for the 12 volunteer fire and ambulance organizations in the FY 2016 budget, the same amount as in FY 2015.
Speaking for the Volunteer Fire and EMS Association, Sharon Worthington told the council the volunteer companies have always been reasonable with their requests for county funding and have asked for minimal increases.
"We have exhausted our ability to fund some items," she said, noting some items are necessities and must be funded, which puts the companies "in an odd position" to fund capital projects.
"There has got to be a solution to this," she said about capital project funding, which Glassman has dramatically scaled back for all county agencies.
"We welcome an open dialogue," she said.
Councilman Pat Vincenti told Worthington the volunteers do a great job and are always first in consideration, "no question about that."