GIRARD — Nearly one year after bringing back ambulance service to the city, officials are planning to begin billing outside transports because of increased mutual-aid calls the fire department has been making to neighboring communities.

Fire Chief Jim Petruzzi told city council Monday since the ambulance service was brought back in late June 2024, there have been 1,524 calls, with 936 being ambulance transports for both Girard residents and nonresidents.

Petruzzi said there were 267 mutual aid calls from June 2024 to May 2025 with Liberty needing mutual aid 195 times; McDonald, 50; Weathersfield, 13; Hubbard, 5; Niles, 2; and Youngstown and Brookfield, 1 each. He said 42 of the mutual aid calls were ended en route.

Petruzzi said of the mutual aid calls, 174 were emergency medical calls, 29 were for fires, and 21 were for vehicle crashes.

He said Girard did receive mutual aid from other fire departments 27 times, with 10 being EMS responses, three transports when the department was on other calls at the same time, 11 fire responses and two-vehicle crashes. One was canceled en route.

Councilman Thomas Grumley, D-4th Ward, said the number of calls being made outside of Girard — mostly to Liberty — warrants hard billing for the transport service.

“This is pretty obvious with 267 mutual-aid calls made. We have become almost a mutual-aid ambulance service. Girard has costs for the ambulance service. We brought the ambulance service back for our residents,” Grumley said.

He said with costs involved for wear and tear of the ambulance and equipment, there needs to be more than soft billing for outside calls.

Grumley said over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Girard made 13 mutual aid calls to Weathersfield.

Petruzzi said the Girard and Hubbard fire departments have been helping in Liberty because of a staffing shortage and a no-overtime policy.

Auditor Julie Coggins said overtime costs for the Girard Fire Department have been a little high.

Councilman-at-Large John Moliterno said it is one thing to help neighboring communities, but the high mutual aid numbers justify outside billing because it can hurt the city when it has to replace vehicles or parts for vehicles.

“We need to begin collecting some of those dollars,” he said.

Petruzzi said nonresidents are sent a bill and while some pay it, there are others who do not and it is written off. He said they will begin billing to see what insurance covers and then send the remaining amount to collections.

Grumley requested legislation be prepared for the June 23 meeting to begin hard billing for ambulance transport service for nonresidents.

Mayor Mark Zuppo said he will speak with Liberty trustees about what is being planned for their fire department. Petruzzi said he oversees a fire department of 13 full-time staff, including himself, and 26 part-time staff with 26 paramedics and 13 emergency medical technicians. He said no one on staff has advanced EMT training.

Petruzzi said to date for 2025, there has been 1,015 calls for the fire department.