On Monday, Salem city councilors unanimously voted to authorize the hiring, training and onboarding of 60-full-time medics and support workers in preparation for the city’s takeover of Salem’s ambulance services from private provider Falck.  City councilors also authorized an internal loan of $6.1 million to pay for ambulances and other equipment and to hire a full-time employee to facilitate the hiring and onboarding of the new employees. Mayor Chris Hoy was absent on Monday. The vote is a major step in the city’s transition back to a public ambulance service. In March, city councilors unanimously approved bringing emergency medical services inside the Salem Fire Department. The transition goes into effect on July 1, 2025, the date the city’s contract with Falck lapses.  The $6 million will be transferred from the city’s equipment replacement reserve fund to the building and safety fund to pay for new equipment and ambulances. About $103,000 will also be used to pay a new full-time human resources employee to help facilitate the hiring, training and onboarding of staff. Salem’s new fire chief David Gerboth, gave a brief statement leading up to Monday’s vote and emphasized the city’s new ambulance system will be self-sustaining.  “This initiative will not impact the general fund. The ambulance services’ revenues and expenses will operate with a separate, self-sustaining enterprise fund,” Gerboth said.  Deputy Fire Chief Brian Carrara provided an update to council on the ambulance transition. He said the fire department will spend the bulk of the loan on 12 ambulances, $860,000 on equipment like cardiac monitors and radios, and $960,000 on additional equipment. The department will pay back the city loan with a yearly payment of $665,000 over 10 years, Carrara said.   Carrara said that the new system should eventually produce revenue through billing that will be reinvested into the city’s ambulance system. He said by the first year, the department should have $3 million in profits , and by year two, $9 million. Carrara said the new system should relieve the department from paying millions in overtime as a result of Falck Northwest failing to meet its contractual obligations.   “Falck has only met the required 1,030 deployment hours twice in the last 78 weeks. That means they have only met the standard 2.5% of the time,” Carrara said. “As a result the city has had to cover significant costs. We’ve spent $417,000 in the months of July and August.” Carrara said the fire department is on course to spend $2.5 million this year in additional revenue to pay for overtime to support Falck.  He said the department is currently in the hiring process, and that everything is on track to deploy the new system in July.  Recruitment for the new fire department jobs closes on Oct. 21, and training for the new employees will begin in the winter. Fire department personnel have said in the past that the department hopes current Falck employees will apply for employment with the city.  “We are currently in the process of hiring 22 paramedics and 30 (emergency medical technicians). We have well over 250 applications for 52 positions,” Carrara said. “That shows that the city has put its best foot forward to pay a living wage and give a good work-life balance to their employees.”  City working to get short term rentals like Airbnbs licenced    Salem city councilors also voted unanimously to advance a bill that redefines “transient lodging” on Monday to exclude short-term rentals like Airbnbs from paying a tourism promotion fee that’s charged to hotels.  The 2% fee on hotel stays was added in 2019 and mostly goes to Travel Salem to fund marketing efforts, tourism and improvements to local lodging businesses. Under the current requirements, the fee, which must be renewed every five years, cannot be renewed if 33% of transient lodging operators object to the renewal. This would result in the fee being ended. Travel Salem requested short term rentals like Airbnbs be excluded from the fee and barred from being able to object to the fee’s renewal. The change comes as the city is working to implement a better system to track and license Airbnbs and other short-term rental properties. There are currently 20 licensed short-term rentals in Salem but the city believes there are far more operating unlicensed, City Attorney Dan Atchison said in a staff memo. City employees are working to use software to help identify short term rentals to ensure they comply with licensing requirements and pay Salem’s hotel tax, which funds cultural events and tourism. Once that work is complete, the city could reevaluate adding short-term rentals back to the list of properties that must pay the tourism promotion fee. Other items City councilors voted unanimously to authorize the city manager to enter into a contract with Phronesis Network, an organization specializing in conflict management, to provide consultant services related to watershed management. The council voted on the contract following city policy to avoid a conflict of interest because the company is owned by a family member of a Salem city employee. Also on Monday, Salem city councilors voted unanimously to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Oregon Department of Transportation to move forward with Americans with Disabilities Act compliant crosswalks along state highways within Salem city limits. The new ADA curb ramp project must be completed within five years of the agreement taking effect, and the curb ramps will be installed in Salem along Oregon Highways 22, 221, 99E and Interstate 5 interchanges. A map of where curbs will be installed can be found online. Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE – If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Salem city councilors authorize hiring 60 new medics to prepare for ambulance takeover  appeared first on Salem Reporter.