We knew the time would come when local emergency service volunteers would resign and new ones would be needed.

It’s happening.

No one is to blame. Times have changed. Many people work out of town or just aren’t cut out to be EMS workers. (I fall in the latter category.)

So, what’s a department to do? There has been casual discussion about having paid people answer calls but that probably would mean one location for ambulances. Time is everything when someone is sick or injured. It would not be the most advantageous solution for EMTs to travel 20 minutes or more to get to some parts of the county.

Marion County residents are extremely lucky. Few counties this size have so many skilled and compassionate volunteers who are on-call day after day and week after week.

Thank you to all who now serve and who have served in the past. It is greatly appreciated by all who live in or travel through our county.

We don’t know what the answer is to this dilemma, but we do know one thing — we need ambulances with trained personnel.

If hiring personnel to do this or “leasing” the service to a for-profit company is the answer, then so be it.

We can’t afford to be without these services or the great people who provide them.

— susan berg