LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — On Tuesday, officials celebrated the launch of the new Municipal Emergency Services Authority of Lancaster County (MESA).
“It’s unbelievable that we finally made it, we finally made it to this point," said Debra Dupler, chair of the MESA board. "It was a long road."
The authority's founding member municipalities are Conoy Township, East Donegal Township, Elizabethtown Borough, Marietta Borough, Mount Joy Township and West Donegal Township.
MESA replaces Northwest EMS, which like many other ambulance providers nationwide, was struggling to stay alive.
“For us the resuscitation was funding," said Dale Ressler, chair of the Northwest EMS board. "That was the blood that we weren’t getting.”
To fix that, every property owner in the participating six municipalities will now pay a yearly fee for ambulance services.
Residents will pay $85 per dwelling unit and business owners will pay $10 per full-time employee.
Those involved say they’ve been met with both support and opposition, but believe most people understand the importance of what they’re doing.
“When we have a loved one or even ourselves who have an emergency, we want to make sure there’s someone there who picks up the phone and responds," said Dupler.
MESA is a first-of-its-kind in our region but those on its board say it’s also a first for the entire state of Pennsylvania.
“We’ve been contacted by multiple municipalities throughout the Commonwealth and even across the country looking at our model to see how it goes," said Dupler.
“We’ve created something," added Ressler. "I think there’s a lot of people out there who are waiting to see if it works, there are probably people waiting to see it not work, but I think it will.”
More information is available at mesalancasterpa.gov.
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