Today we cover…

• County-wide EMS Update
  
• Grand Opening of Women, Infant, and Children’s (WIC) Kamas Brach
  
• Our Summit Questionnaire #3. 
  

EMS 

At this week’s County Council meeting there was some major movement in the conversation regarding county-wide EMS services. Here is a quick recap of where we’re at now… 

Summit County decided that it would fund a Basic 911 EMS Service  countywide.  The County has contracted with each of its three fire districts: Park City Fire, North Summit Fire, and South Summit Fire, to provide this Basic Service within each fire district’s geographic boundaries. The three fire districts will  provide fire protection services and as a result of the EMS Interlocal Agreements, which were signed on Wednesday, each will also now provide EMS service. 

On Wednesday, the county signed Interlocal Agreements with each of its fire districts.  All of the cities within each fire district also signed the Interlocal Agreement pertaining to the fire district that will provide their residents service.  This is because Utah law requires that each city be responsible to provide basic 911 ambulance service within its city boundaries. 

There was also discussion of mutual aid agreements at Council. Fire districts typically enter into Mutual Aid Agreements with each other.  A Mutual Aid Agreement allows one fire district to help out another fire district when the need arises.  For example, there is a fire in Coalville and its such a large fire that North Summit Fire calls Park City Fire to help out.  They can engage in this activity because of the Mutual Aid Agreement.  With respect to EMS, it may be that there are multiple traffic accidents in Kamas, which overwhelms the number of ambulances they have.  South Summit Fire can request help from Park City Fire for additional ambulances.  Again, they can engage in this activity due to a Mutual Aid Agreement.  

The Mutual Aid Agreement allows one fire district to provide service in another fire district’s geographic area with the consent of that fire district. 

 In the past, the Mutual Aid Agreements have only included firefighting.  With the change in EMS, we need a more expansive Mutual Aid Agreement that includes fire protection and EMS.  In addition, the County has a Wildland Fire Service Area which has a Wildland Fire Unit that handles fire suppression on vacant lands in unpopulated areas that are not within a fire district.  There are times when a fire district needs to help out the Wildland Fire Unit with Initial Attack on wildfires or EMS.  The Mutual Aid Agreement will allow for that as well. 

The County and its fire districts have not entered into that Mutual Aid Agreement yet. The agreement is currently drafted and has been circulated to each fire district.  The reason the County and fire districts have not yet entered into that Mutual Aid Agreement is because South Summit Fire will be contracting out its EMS service to another fire district.  At this time, South Summit Fire has not yet chosen who that fire district will be.  That contracted fire district will need to be a part of the Mutual Aid Agreement.  

Therefore, we have to wait until South Summit Fire makes their decision before signing the Mutual Aid Agreement.  We expect that South Summit Fire will make their decision within the next 30 days and soon thereafter, we will be signing the Mutual Aid Agreement. We’ll be sure to keep our listeners updated on that process right here on Summit in Six! 

WIC Kamas Grand Opening 

The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program is hosting a Health & Resource Fair on Friday, October 13 from 3-6 at the Kamas services building, located at 110 N. Main Street in Kamas. This event is a celebration of the grand opening of WIC’s brand-new Kamas Clinic! Join us for a night full of fun, information and health services! This event is open to the community and will be hosted at the Summit County Services Building in Kamas. It’s going to be a fa-boo-lous time. Learn more at facebook.com/summitcountyhd. 

Questionnaire #3

Don’t miss your chance to participate in Phase 3 of “Our Summit,” the county-wide community visioning process! Your responses will directly impact and guide the future of Summit County. In this phase, you’ll help us understand how YOU prioritize certain features of your local community, what enhancements you would like to see and how you think growth should be handled. Take Questionnaire 3 at oursummitcounty.com.