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Last week township officials voted not to join the Southeastern Ambulance Authority, which has been proposed by Croswell EMS.

When Township Supervisor William Noelke informed Croswell EMS Director Jeff Dawson of the decision, Dawson let Noelke know he would be notifying Sanilac County Central Dispatch not to dispatch Croswell's ambulances to the township. Currently, Croswell EMS serves southern Sanilac Township.

"I emailed Dawn Cubitt (911 dispatch director) this morning at the direction of my boss, (city Administrator) Dave Tait," Dawson said Friday.

Cubitt said Dawson told her the mutual aid agreement will not apply. According to the mutual aid agreement, ambulance, fire and police departments are dispatched to each other's jurisdictions.

Cubitt checked with County Medical Control Director Steve Kipp as to whether the mutual aid agreement applies. Kipp told her Croswell EMS can refuse to respond because "they are a business."

Cubitt has also asked for an opinion from state authorities.

"We have been serving them for 2 1/2 years, ever since Marlette (EMS) pulled out," said Dawson. "They (Sanialc Township) never paid."

The contract, which the township did not sign, called for payment of $7,391 per year for ambulance service for the township.

Why doesn't the township want to join the EMS authority?

"If the township is involved we would put in the third highest amount after Worth and Lexington (townships) and we would get no guarantee we'd get better service, that there'd be an ambulance in Sanilac Township or Port Sanilac," stated Noelke.

"Jeff can't promise, he's not running it."

"We intend to put an ambulance in Carsonville or the Port Sanilac area," Dawson stated. "We'd get more calls in Port Sanilac, but Carsonville is a more central location."

If the authority is formed, it would be run by a board made up of representatives of the municipalities.

"He said he can't believe we'd turn it down, because the township would save money," said Noelke. "We wouldn't save because we never paid it. They'd bill us on occasion but we didn't have a contract with them because we never signed it."

Croswell EMS serves Croswell, Applegate, Lexington and Carsonville as well as the townships of Lexington, Worth, Fremont, Buel, Washington and Sanilac. However, Croswell has had to subsidize the ambulance service for years.

The plan is for municipalities in the proposed authority to place a 0.5 mill levy to support ambulance service on the November ballot.

Together with the revenue from the ambulance runs, the authority could fully staff and equip ambulance runs.

So far Dawson has been notified Worth and Lexington townships, Croswell and the Village of Lexington have voted to join the authority.

In the meantime, Noelke is talking to McKenzie Hospital's Sanilac EMS about basing an ambulance in Sanilac Township this summer to start.

"It would be more cost effective in the summer. We'll see how it goes," he said.

"I am looking to rent a place (for the ambulance) because there is no room at Port Sanilac. They would have to add on (to the fire hall) because we would need a bay for the EMS," Noelke stated.

The Carsonville Fire Hall has a bay and facilities for the EMS crew because they used to house the Marlette EMS. However, McKenzie would rather be based in Port Sanilac because of the higher population and more ambulance runs.