Lancaster County Commissioners voted to grant $375,000 in federal COVID-19 funds to the newly created Municipal Emergency Services Authority of Lancaster County (MESA). “The government is simply providing some startup money to help them because we recognize it is a problem and we recognize here’s a group of municipalities coming together to try to solve this problem,” said Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons. The move follows the announcement that Northwest EMS will close once MESA is up and running sometime in early 2024. Northwest EMS had run at a deficit for six years. MESA is a coalition of eight municipalities in northwest Lancaster County that will service the area previously covered by Northwest EMS.