It might cost Isle of Palms residents only an additional $40 a year in property taxes to have trained paramedics on the island and ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice, according to IOP Council Member Jan Anderson.
Fire Chief Craig Oliverius offered three options for adding paramedics to the Fire Department at a Public Safety Committee meeting March 6 and again at a Council workshop March 14. The options he presented ranged from $750,000 to $960,000 in first-year costs. The least expensive possibility would include hiring six trained paramedics who also would serve as firefighters. At the workshop, Mayor Phillip Pounds said the city could not absorb nearly a million dollars in new expenses without some type of tax increase.
Anderson said later that the tax hike would be only $40 annually for full-time residents – and possibly less.
“We’re now looking at other ways to cover it, and maybe it won’t be that much,” Anderson said. “Our budget projections are always very conservative. In the past, we’ve always had a surplus. Our goal is to make it happen without a tax increase.”
Regardless of the cost, Anderson thinks it’s important for the IOP Fire Department to have trained paramedics. She cited a recent situation where a person suffered a heart attack. The Fire Department arrived within five minutes and stabilized the patient, but the firefighters were not certified to administer medications. They had to wait until the ambulance that had been dispatched by Charleston County arrived.
“With a paramedic already on the island, that would save an extra five to 10 minutes,” Anderson pointed out.
Anderson said she thinks the city will be able to use accommodations tax funds to help pay to hire paramedics. She also suggested that Sullivan’s Island might be interested in sharing costs and receiving the benefits of having paramedics nearby.
“We’ve not been contacted yet,” Sullivan’s Island Mayor Pat O’Neil said. “But we’re happy to learn about what ideas they might have. We’re always looking for ways we can cooperate with neighboring municipalities and improve our services.”
“I look forward to talking with them if they reach out to us,” he added. “It’s nice that they included us in discussing that.”
