CHAMPION — Trustees on Tuesday approved new billing rates for mutual aid calls to neighboring townships.

Trustee Chairman Doug Emerine said the rates adopted at the meeting are for an understaffed neighboring fire department of at least one person at station when Champion responds the cost is $285 for paramedic assist service per occurrence and $150 for emergency medical technician assist service.

He said if the mutual aid call is for a fire department that has no staffing at all, the cost for Champion to transport by ambulance a resident in another community is $750 per occurrence and nontransport $100 with the resident to be billed.

Champion will bill the medical insurance of residents for the medical care and transport provided as part of the current soft billing procedure. Officials said if a resident’s insurance covers the cost for the transport, the township that received mutual aid will not pay anything. If the bill was only partially covered, that community will have to pay the difference.

Officials said billing to neighboring departments will be quarterly.

Champion officials met with fire officials from Bristol, Southington and Warren townships Tuesday before the regular meeting. Champion fire Chief Tom Dempsey said the department would only go out on mutual aid calls to neighboring communities if there is at least four people on staff to make sure Champion remains covered.

He said Champion is a full-time department but has struggled with having enough firefighters and EMTs on staff to cover shifts. Dempsey said other departments in Bristol and Warren townships that are not full time have also struggled and often do not have enough coverage.

In the May primary, Champion voters passed a 2.65‒mill, five‒year additional fire levy to fund fire protection and emergency medical services raising $692,145 annually for fire and EMS operations.

Officials said the funds will help in getting enough staff per shift, which Dempsey said he would like to see at four.

Champion trustee Tom Jeffers said residents have said they want to have enough protection for Champion residents who pay the taxes for the department first before mutual aid is provided to other communities.

Jeffers said the township has worked to get more staff for the department and cover shifts and recommended other townships also make that effort to cover their fire departments.

Officials said last year, the fire department responded to 800 EMS calls including those to other communities.

Bristol fire Chief Steve Craiger said it has been challenging for the fire department and noted Champion receives more funds from its voters than Bristol does because of its larger population.

“We provide the services that we can with our income. I wish we could pass a levy. We can never have six full-time people working for us at one time,” Craiger said.

Trustee Rick York said the services the taxpayers in Champion pay for should benefit them first and then help other townships if they can.

“This didn’t start out to be anything about money. It started out about us trying to make sure that we had services available for our own residents,” Emerine said.

Champion does have an agreement in place with Southington to provide services to that township, which pays for the service.