Girard looking to bill non-residents for ambulance services

The City of Girard is looking to start billing non-residents who use its ambulance services.

Girard Fire Chief Jim Petruzzi tells 21 News ever since the Girard Fire Department started its ambulance service in June of 2024, the city has responded to 267 mutual aid calls.

Those included calls for fire crews and/or EMS crews for situations such as vehicle crashes. Some of those calls were canceled as crews were on their way to the scene.

Chief Petruzzi says this number far exceeds the amount of times the city has received mutual aid from other departments within that time frame, which was just 27.

City officials have expressed concerns about these mutual aid responses causing wear and tear on the vehicles or causing a Girard resident to be unable to get a timely response for an emergency due to crews being tied up in neighboring communities.

In hopes of offsetting these mutual aid calls, the city is looking to charge non-residents for its ambulance service. Petruzzi says these non-residents' insurance providers will be billed.

The city will collect whatever amount insurance pays and the non-residents will be responsible for the remaining amounts.

In terms of how much this will cost, Petruzzi says that would depend on the severity of the run and which services were rendered. Petruzzi says the city is still in discussions about this and he does not expect these charges to go into effect for at least another two months.