A resident at Columbiana's council meeting raised concerns Tuesday evening over prolonged EMS response times.

He claims he waited over an hour to get help for his mother who's fighting for her life.

"It is not something that we're ignoring, we're definitely aware that actions need to be taken and we're looking into them right now," Councilman Dan Dattilio said.

That resident, John Blankenship, said he called for an ambulance at 7:28 for his mother Wednesday evening. About a half hour later at 7:58 he called again to see where they were and was allegedly told by a nurse that they "had no idea."

"At 8:10 I called dispatch myself asking where the ambulance was and they told me it was coming from EMT out of Salem. At 8:53 last Wednesday is when the ambulance finally arrived to take my mom to the hospital," Blankenship said.

EMT is not the provider for Columbiana and had to send a crew from Salem in an effort to assist since no one closer was available. 

Blankenship said it's unacceptable to be waiting for help to arrive during an emergency, for nearly an hour and a half.

"I don't know about you guys but if that was your loved one, how would you feel," he asked council.

Mayor Rick Noel voiced his own concerns over the issue

"EMS is a huge problem for all communities so that is a concern that we have. It's something that we need to discuss, I don't disagree with you at all," Noel said.

City manager Lance Willard said they're working on getting more EMS personnel and that the city has been throwing incentives out there like pay increases in recent years to try to mitigate the issue.