Northwood Mayor Mark Stoner said he will make a recommendation to the Safety Committee later this month on his proposed Advanced Life Support (ALS) system in the volunteer fire department.

Stoner had proposed the plan in June, but some on council balked, saying it was too expensive to implement. The plan would guarantee that a paramedic would respond to ALS calls. Currently, there is no such guarantee.

Council in July decided to delay any action on the proposal until the city hired a new fire chief, who could review and offer input on the plan.

A new fire chief was appointed last month.

Stoner said he, the new chief, and Administrator Dennis Recker plan to make the recommendation on the ALS suste, at the next Safety Committee meeting.

“I’m still behind it,” said Stoner. “We waited until we got Joe in there to give us some feedback about what he thinks we should do.”

His plan would be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 would provide 24/7 Basic Life Support (BLS) with occasional ALS based on staffing capabilities. Phase 2 would consist of two person teams providing 24/7 staffing, including a minimum of one certified paramedic per shift.

The proposal, estimated to cost $260,000 annually, would be funded by a reallocation from the general fund to the capital replacement fund. Last year, the city reallocated 10 percent of the capital replacement fund into the general fund to allow the money to be used for city services at a time when the city was struggling financially.

The proposal was prompted by an incident that was first reported in The Press in which a Northwood resident called 9-1-1 three times on March 3 for her husband who was having breathing problems. Tim Mix, 67, of Parc Rue, had stopped breathing by the time help arrived 28 minutes later from a Northwood rescue squad manned by an EMT. Medic 50, a rescue squad staffed by paramedics in Lake Township, which has a mutual aid agreement with Northwood, transported Mix to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, where he was removed from life support two days later. He had suffered brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen, according to Mix’s wife Ellen.

Stoner said a recent lawsuit filed by Mrs. Mix against Northwood caused some in the city to worry that the ALS plan should be dropped, since it might be an admission of liability.

“No, we’re not admitting we did wrong. We’re admitting we can do better,” said Stoner. “We are going to continue to talk about it. We might not be able to go full time ALS this year, maybe next year. But we have to start progressing to go that way. Maybe we can put more people on pagers and staff it for longer hours. All of this is up for discussion.”

The lack of an ALS system, added Stoner, could deter business development.

“It could hurt us trying to attract new business,” he said. “But the bottom line is we found out we can do better. And that’s where we have to go. If I keel over, I want someone to respond. I don’t care if we have a part-time or full-time chief. I want someone to come and help me out. And that’s what we need. Our residents deserve it.”

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