County stalls Midway FD ambulance
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Demeter

Midway Fire District officials must wait another couple months at least to know whether they are going to be able to accept a grant for an ambulance to be used in their district. County Commissioners told Midway Monday that they will not even discuss the issue of allowing Midway to get the ambulance at this week's regular County Commission meeting, but that Midway should come back sometime before October to make their request again.

The grant letter to Midway Fire District gave the fire commissioners until October to get approval from the county for an ambulance to be placed in Midway for backup transport or Midway Fire will lose the grant of over $112,000 - and the ambulance that grant is to pay for.

Midway Fire Chief Stephen Demeter assured commissioners they were requesting the certificate allowing them to transport by ambulance within their own district only as a back-up to Lifeguard, the ambulance service that recently won the bid to become the county's only primary ambulance service later this year.

"We cannot accept the grant or get the ambulance unless the county gives us some kind of COPCN certificate, saying we are allowed to transport. We do not want to do anything to interfere with Lifeguard in any way, and we have no problem with who pulls the trigger on that ambulance."

Demeter said they would like to work as mutual aid to Lifeguard.

"Lifeguard is going to work in mutual aid with Escambia County and Okaloosa County, in case one of their ambulances is not available. We think it makes a lot more sense -- if there is no Lifeguard ambulance available in our area -- to have one of our own ready to roll just within the Midway district than to sit and wait for one to come from Pensacola or Ft. Walton Beach."

County Commissioners said they would like to see Lifeguard get in place and get 'their feet on the ground' before addressing Midway's request of an added ambulance in the south end. Commissioner Bob Cole said,

John Roche, owner of Lifeguard ambulance service, was at the meeting and told commissioners he had been talking to Chief Demeter about this issue, and "just wanted a few weeks" to get things going and in place. Then they would look seriously at how to implement Midway as a mutual aid transport. Lifeguard is scheduled to take over the county's ambulance services Aug.1.