Local News in Brief : Paramedic Fee Hearings

A plan to charge residents for for paramedic services will be discussed by the Hawthorne City Council on Aug. 8.

The plan was suggested by Fire Chief Roger L. Milstead as a way of raising about $511,000 a year to offset the $771,000 it costs the city annually to operate two paramedic units. Under Milstead’s plan, residents can either subscribe annually for services or pay as services are used.

The annual subscription would cost $35 a year for a household, and would include all of the services that non-subscribers would have to pay for individually.

For non-subscribers, the city would charge $75 for treatment of emergencies that are not life-threatening, including such procedures as bandaging or splinting; $175 for treatment in life-threatening situations where paramedics perform such services as administering drugs or intravenous fluids or defibrillating heart attack victims, and $150 for emergency ambulance transportation.

Also to be discussed is a proposal to ask voter approval of a tax increase that would raise about $2 million a year to hire 19 more police officers, increasing the force to 104.