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Citing a lack of much needed paramedics, the Coffee County Ambulance Authority is seeking a $4 hourly increase to for individuals employed by the Coffee County Emergency Medical Service.

The recommendation was brought up during the Nov. 16 Ambulance Authority meeting.

Ambulance Authority Member Dr. Jay Trussler proposed the increase in pay as an incentive for current employees to return to school (the county just adopted a tuition reimbursement program) and as a way to recruit other county’s paramedics’ interested in moonlighting on their off time.

“We want to encourage the (basic) EMTs and advanced EMTs to proceed up the ladder to that,” he said.

Trussler said when the last raises occurred during budget time in the spring, all the other counties were also addressing employee wages and the increase didn’t necessarily recruit new paramedics, only maintained the current staff levels.

The proposed raise would only apply to employees with a paramedic license.

“I agree that everyone deserves a raise… but we are at the point where we need to send (advance life support ambulances) out and we can’t if we’re are not growing our paramedic numbers,” Trussler said.

“What makes (this request) different is we are in a crisis point right now,” he added. “I don’t think we need to wait any longer.”

In the last months there were nine days where there were only three ambulances available to cover the entirety of Coffee County for a whole shift. During the month of October, the county was fully staffed with five ambulance crews for just one day.

Trussler noted that some surrounding counties have adopted on for 24 hours, off for 72 hour shifts for EMS. Those longer off periods open up a window of down time that some paramedics use to pick up extra shifts in larger better-paying counties like Williamson County. If Coffee County, he reasoned, paid more, though still not what Williamson County pays — those employees might be interested in working here.

The motion was seconded by Dr. Jeff Keele who in the discussion has suggested a one-time bonus incentive instead of the reoccurring cost of a pay increase. He said that his suggestion has been described by the budget department as being problematic to apply legally.

The requested raise is estimated to raise paramedic salaries $8,000 annually without overtime and would cost the county’s payroll and additional $250,000-300,000.

The motion passed unanimously but would have to be approved by the full Coffee County Commission to be implemented.

“The county is exploding and we need to get our medic numbers up,” Trussler said. “We haven’t had a new unit put on the road in years. We need to look at a new station in Hillsboro and we can’t begin to do that without addressing staffing.”