Sheriff's department ready to formalize new multi-year ambulance dispatching contract

Newly elected Perry County Sheriff Steve Bareis and Pinckneyville Ambulance Service director have reached a tentative four-year ambulance dispatching contract agreement that will assure fast response time and high quality medical transportation service in the coming years.

"I am looking forward to--and very excited about--working with Sheriff Bareis," said ambulance service director Shane Malawy.

"The ambulance service is more important to the county than the money," added Bareis.

Details of the agreement will not be detailed until the language is formalized by year's end. The contract will encourage cooperation between the department and the ambulance service with a reasonable year-to-year increase in what the ambulance service pays the sheriff's department to receive emergency ambulance calls and dispatch medical personnel.

For a year, Malaway stood toe-to-toe with Sheriff Keith Kellerman, who argued that the department's demand for an increase was necessary for the department. "We have to cover our costs," said Kellerman in an interview last year.

The negotiations went nowhere with the Pinckneyville Ambulance Service threatening to contract privately with another call center.

"So far, Steve (Bareis) has been very approachable. He sat down in my office. We are very excited to work with him," said Malawy.

Bareis said routine ambulance calls and Emergency 911 calls account for about 35 percent of the sheriff's department's dispatching operation.

It's an expensive operation that has to be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At times--during multi-victim traffic accidents--the dispatch center gets very busy.

Bareis said the ambulance service needs local dispatching services and the sheriff's department needs the ambulance service. He said he looks forward to the department working with Malawy.

Malawy said he hopes that after the contract signing the Perry County Emergency 911 board will make a promised investment in some communications upgrades that will benefit everyone.