Streets, fires top Reno priority list – Reno Gazette

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Unless told differently, he said staff will prepare a budget that includes across-the-board cuts if needed. Then, he said, the City Council can adjust those numbers to blunt the impact on public safety, as it did for this fiscal year.

While acknowledging many of those services listed as low priority support police, fire and other top priorities, Knutson also had a message for them: They should be looking for ways to do their jobs more efficiently.

The task force rated the fire department’s response to emergency medical calls as a low priority, raising the most rancor. Under the current system, fire crews generally respond first to medical calls and then Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority ambulances arrive.

While this response system arguably provides optimal coverage, the task force said it is redundant and not cost effective. It recommended a cost-benefit analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of the current system.

Of 34,000 fire calls in 2009, 72 percent were for emergency medical emergencies. REMSA does not share its billings with the fire department but replenishes medical supplies for fire crews.

At Councilwoman Jessica Sferrazza’s request, City Manager Donna Dreska last week told the council she intends to find university graduate students to help prepare a cost-benefit analysis as a class project.

When the task force report was before the council two weeks ago, Brandi Anderson — a former City Council candidate, a firefighter’s wife and a mother — urged the City Council to do that analysis. She said she’d like to see the city take over ambulance services and put ambulances in the fire stations.

A resident of south Reno, Anderson said ambulances have taken 12 minutes to get to a neighbor’s child who stopped breathing. Three weeks ago, she was charged $618 for an ambulance ride from the airport to the hospital.

“I think Reno can do better,” she said.

Chris Graves, a city fire captain, said ambulances carry only two paramedics. During a medical emergency, firefighters, who are trained as emergency medical technicians, provide needed extra help.