Ambulance service presentation turned emotional in Peru

The discussion about the ambulance service in Peru goes deeper than finances.  For the people who work for it or have, it’s personal.  Staff and board members of the Peru Volunteer Ambulance packed the Peru city council chambers Tuesday night while their board member Henry Hackman presented the service to city officials.

During the meeting, PVAS Director Mark Roberson said you couldn’t take all of the emotion out of the discussion.  Afterwards he agreed with a statement by the city’s fire chief that the emergency services work well together.

Roberson hopes they’ll be able to have a long-term contract with the city.

But they don’t have a contract now, instead the city council has agreed to pay PVAS four $4,000 a month, or $48,000 a year for the service.

Whether or not the city needed to bid out the service caused a disagreement between a couple of the current aldermen and former mayor, Don Baker.

Alderman Rodney Perez said the meeting was meant to help city officials get more information and that nobody was questioning the quality of PVAS’ work, still the as the crowd cleared people were irritated.