PORTAGE — Representatives with the Cambria Alliance EMS and Forest Hills Area Ambulance Association pitched the Portage Borough Council on taking over the borough’s emergency medical services during its meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

The proposals came after the Portage Area Ambulance Association suspended its emergency medical services on Nov. 21, leaving Cambria County 911 dispatchers to send the closest available ambulance service to emergency calls. The association served the boroughs of Portage, Cassandra and Wilmore, as well as Portage Township and part of Summerhill Township.

Charles Rimini, the Portage association’s business manager, attended the council’s July meeting to seek financial assistance to keep the service within the community.

In July, Rimini said a billing company the association previously used failed to follow up and rebill more than $194,000 of income from insurance reimbursements, so its board of directors hired a debt collection agency to pursue a list of people with outstanding accounts from 2020 to present.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Rimini said he was advised by his attorney not to talk with media outlets about the association’s current situation.

While Portage Township and Cassandra Borough have already designated Cambria Alliance EMS in Cresson as their primary service provider, the other municipalities still need to decide on which agency will provide coverage.

Addressing the council, Cambria Alliance Executive Director Bill Kline said splitting the borough between two services would be “the best route,” but if council preferred having one service, they could provide it.

“We are a 24/7 EMS service,” Kline said. “That means that we are always having at least one crew in service with a paramedic that is on the truck.”

The Cambria Alliance has four ambulances with two to three crews working daylight shift and one overnight, with a response time to the borough of about 15 minutes.

Portage resident Andrew Gruse expressed his concern over the Alliance’s estimated response times, saying the quoted 15 minutes could be expected on a good day, but didn’t factor in the county’s winding back roads. He said it took him 20 minutes to drive from his mother’s house to the Alliance station.

“I just want to know, where will my mother go?” Gruse said. “Isn’t that a concern she’s going to be waiting? Is that going to be sustainable?”

Kline said the Alliance would have no problem with a call like Gruse’s, but if he was still concerned, he should reach out to the township.

“We made a proposal to split 50-50,” Kline said. “They said, for simplicity’s sake and the safety of residents, they wanted one service.”

Eric Miller, manager of the Forest Hills Ambulance Service for 32 years, was the next to speak, telling the council that their coverage area was the Forest Hills School District.

Miller said he had talked to borough manager Bob Koban and a few other people regarding the installation of a substation in the area.

“And I got to tell you guys, it won’t work, the numbers aren’t there,” Miller said. “I think the best thing that could happen right now is that we split the area between us and Cresson. That’s my proposed services for this community.”

Koban asked Miller, if the council decided not to split the borough, would Forest Hills be willing to cover the whole area, to which Miller responded “absolutely.”

“It would be the same as any of our other areas,” Miller said.

East Hills Ambulance from Richland Township also made a proposal to the borough through a letter provided to the council.

During the council’s discussion of their options, member Perry Scarton said he believed they needed to talk to the Cambria Alliance again.

“We really have to sit down and figure out … what bills are due down there and what revenues are they expecting to bring in?” Scarton said.

Borough Mayor Robert Fox said the borough is less than a mile wide end-to-end so it “made no difference” to him “if they’re coming from Cresson or Forest Hills.”

“That’s irrelevant to me that we’re splitting, and somebody’s going to be two minutes closer end-to-end, because we’re not spread out, we’re a square block,” Fox said.

The council eventually decided to choose an ambulance service at their next meeting on Dec. 20. Following the meeting, Koban said if the council did not pick a service then, it would be done no later than the first week of January.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.

(Editor’s note: Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella contributed to this report.)