AUSTINTOWN — An ambulance that the Austintown Fire Department operated in conjunction with Lane LifeTrans no longer will be part of the township’s fleet.

Lane will operate the unit without an Austintown firefighter / paramedic, although the ambulance still will be dedicated primarily to the township.

Fire Chief David Schertzer said the two agreed mutually to terminate that agreement because it did not make financial sense for Lane, and the township needs its emergency personnel to staff its own new ambulance units.

“We had two ambulances that we bought during COVID, and those finally came in, so the

people on the co-op unit are now just staffing a regular ambulance,” he said.

Although they were ordered at the same time, one of the ambulances arrived in 2023 and another just arrived over the summer.

Lane houses three ambulances in Austintown — Medic 1, Medic 2 and Medic 9 — and one of those, Medic 9, was cooperatively staffed by one Lane employee and an Austintown firefighter / paramedic. It was used as a dedicated backup in case Lane’s other two units were called away to one of the other communities the company serves.

The three will now all be part of Lane’s fleet.

“We’re still better off that way than before we started that co-op because it’s still an additional unit in the township,” Schertzer said.

In the event that one of Lane’s units is unavailable or delayed, Austintown still has its own ambulance, called Rescue 1. Most of Austintown’s firefighters are cross-trained as paramedics, or at least as EMTs.

“It’s great for us, because it’s a catch-all,” Schertzer said. “They get stretched pretty thin, so it’s a good backup for our residents, to make sure we always have something.”

Schertzer said the extra ambulance in the fleet also means extra hands on deck for other types of calls.

“When it’s not being utilized for EMS purposes, if we get crashes or fires, we bring them with us,” he said. “It’s nice to have the extra manpower and the benefit of an ambulance on scene for a fire or crash.”

Schertzer said the ambulance is also convenient at crash sites when Lane may only be able to spare one unit.

“You could have multiple parties at a crash with injuries, and if Lane only has one, we can send ours and now we don’t have to worry about someone not having emergency service,” he said.

Schertzer said the township ambulance is critical, given that Lane has become the only game in town in Mahoning County. The ambulance company EMT is contracted to operate exclusively within the city of Youngstown.

“I’m not saying they’re not doing the job, they do great for us, but they can get stretched thin or get tied up at the hospital,” he said.

Schertzer said those delays are becoming less of a problem.

“Hospitals are getting better at getting turnaround times down, and trying hard to help us with that,” he said.