There’s always been something a little unfair about unpaid volunteer fire departments responding to EMS calls in Jamestown on a mutual aid basis.

Mutual aid exists to make sure help is on the way when it’s needed, and that system has surely saved countless lives over the decades. But having volunteers respond in the city, which has a paid fire department and a much larger budget than the surrounding towns and villages, made little financial sense for the volunteer departments. There is a cost to run equipment from surrounding areas into Jamestown. Fuel costs money. Restocking the ambulances costs money. Certifications and insurance all cost money. So running these volunteer fire department ambulances into Jamestown with no chance to recoup any of your expenses could be a pretty big financial hit for towns and villages.

A proposed agreement between the city and Busti brings a little more fairness to the volunteers from the city’s south side – and it’s a fairness that we hope extends to Jamestown’s neighbors on all sides. That is the plan, according to Matt Coon, Jamestown deputy fire chief, who plans to reach out to all of the city’s neighbors with a deal similar to Busti’s. The agreement with Busti isn’t final yet. It needs formal City Council approval and approval from the town of Busti.

But it’s a deal that, in our view, needs to get done. Deals with other neighbors need to get done too.

It’s important to note that the EMS Cost Recovery Act expires in 2026 and will need to be reauthorized by the state. While the legislation allows volunteer fire departments to bill for services, it has created some issues for volunteer fire departments in the form of some added costs they weren’t anticipating. As 2026 nears it’s important that state lawmakers are considering ways to tweak the EMS Cost Recovery Act to remove some of the strings and unanticipated consequences while keeping things that can be a benefit – like the shared services agreements being considered between Jamestown and its neighbors.

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