Summit Fire & E.M.S. and Summit County Ambulance Service have agreed to merge operations and consolidate their services into a single organization.
The move comes after the Board of County Commissioners and the board of directors for Summit Fire & E.M.S. unanimously came to an agreement in principle this week to merge the organizations.
The ambulance services will merge operations by July 1 and a formal financial and legal unification will take place by Jan. 1, 2020. “We’ve studied this system from all angles, with the help of independent experts in the emergency-services field,” Summit County Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier said in a press release. “We’ve concluded that the best and most efficient model for our community is a single, seamless emergency-response organization.”