Riverside trustees on Dec. 7 voted unanimously to increase the fee it pays to Public Safety Services Inc. (PSSI), the company that provides the village with paramedic services, in 2014.
According to the terms of the deal, Riverside will pay PSSI $450,613 from Dec. 15 until Dec. 14, 2014. That amount represents a 1.2 percent increase in PSSI’s charges for its services.
The contract calls for the village to pay 10 percent as a down payment on Dec. 15 and then pay equal monthly installments throughout 2014.
PSSI has not raised the rate it has charged Riverside since December 2011. The fee Riverside pays for paramedics represents the single largest annual contract expense for the village.
In 2012, PSSI and the village agreed on a new three-year contract, which expires on Dec. 14, 2015. During the first year of the contract, which ends Dec. 14, 2013, the fee was frozen at $445,050.
PSSI has been Riverside’s paramedic provider since 1996. Working three shifts per day, two of the company’s paramedics are on duty 24 hours a day, every day of the week. In addition, the paramedics are certified firefighters (two of them are also paid-on-call firefighters for Riverside) who are called up to serve in that role as well, when needed.
The fees paid by the village help cover the cost of the paramedics’ salaries and benefits, which are provided through PSSI.
—Bob Uphues
