GALLIPOLIS, Ohio — Gallipolis City School District has partnered with Gallia County Commissioners to perform maintenance on the county’s EMS vehicles using the district’s bus garage and technicians.

“This partnership just made perfect sense,” Commissioners President Harold Montgomery said. Vice President Joe Foster added that EMS Director Larry Boyer and Troy Johnson, the school district’s transportation/safety director, proposed the idea, which showed “an immediate cost savings for the county.”

The partnership began on March 21 when the Gallipolis City School District’s board approved the recommendation.  

“We are saving the county approximately $30 a work hour over what they were paying to maintain their squads,” Johnson told SBF. “In addition, we are using the school district’s volume purchasing power on parts, which is saving up to 25% on the cost of parts. We only bill for actual time spent working on the vehicles and not a suggested bill or book time, so there is instant savings there, also.”

Gallia County operates five EMS vehicles and one rescue truck. Boyer said that the partnership has resulted in a faster turnaround time for service on the squads, making them available to respond to more calls as needed.

Johnson added that the schedule for servicing the EMS vehicles is flexible, so Gallipolis City School District technicians can get them back on the road without any disruption to the district’s normal school bus maintenance operation.

The technicians work in staggered shifts — one works from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the other works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and they only work on the squads during hours when they are not needed for bus fleet maintenance.

“This ensures that their normal duties for keeping our bus fleet in top shape are not pushed aside,” Johnson explained, noting that he added $10 a work hour to the technicians’ pay rate for service to the EMS vehicles to cover expenses and administrative time.

While the district has profited financially from the partnership, Johnson said that the profit “isn’t huge” at this point given the number of vehicles the technicians are servicing, and the fact that the partnership has only been in place for a couple of months.