FORWARD TWP — Effective Oct. 1, residents of Forward Township will be supported by two emergency medical service providers instead of three.

At the township’s meeting on Thursday, Aug. 13, the board of supervisors voted unanimously to end service from Quality EMS.

Quality EMS is currently assigned with responding to 446 of the addresses within the township. The other two providers, Butler Ambulance and Harmony EMS, are assigned 567 and 379 addresses, respectively. Addresses that are presently assigned to Quality EMS will be reassigned between Butler Ambulance and Harmony EMS.

The changes comes as a result of Quality EMS, a Mars-based nonprofit agency, proposing a $35 per household fee to provide additional financial support.

The township had previously donated funds to support the organization.

While Quality EMS appreciated the donations, the nonprofit still wanted to impose a required fee, said Tom Hartwig, township manager.

“We are not going to be paying them a fee per household that they requested,” Susan Oliver-Stough, chairwoman of the board of supervisors, said. “We're going to be losing them because we've chosen to lose them.”

Oliver-Stough said EMS’s financial struggles are a problem across Pennsylvania.

“It’s been a problem for the longest time,” she said. “It's something that the legislature and the governors have ignored and they continue to make excuses.”

Forward Township officials met with Steve Bicehouse, Butler County director of emergency services, on the issue of continuing EMS service in the municipality. After reviewing the issue, it was concluded the two remaining EMS providers can provide sufficient coverage, Oliver-Stough said.

The coverage is also backed by assistance from Evans City and Callery’s volunteer fire departments if needed. Both are certified in quick response service.

“So they have the capability of getting to somebody first until an EMS service arrives and stabilizing the patient that needs assistance immediately until that ambulance arrives,” Hartwig said.

Over the next two weeks, Butler County 911 staff will work with the township on the optimal way to distribute the addresses formerly assigned to Quality between the two providers, said Hartwig.

Accommodating the change in EMS providers may require some changes in the budget and potentially a tax, Oliver-Stough said, noting it is not something the township plans to address at this time.

“This won't be the end of the discussion,” she said. “This will keep coming up.”

Oliver-Stough implored residents in attendance to contact state legislators and express concerns about EMS in smaller communities.

“Some of the bigger cities have a very large tax base,” Oliver-Stough said. “In the rural parts of Pennsylvania, it’s pretty tough.

“But I think our local providers do the best they can,” she said.