At its quarterly meeting Monday afternoon at City Hall, the seven-entity Cass-Van Buren Emergency Services Authority (CVBESA) discussed purchasing liability insurance for an “additional layer of protection.”

For the quarter there were 198 calls with an average response time of 5:34, Brian Balow reported.

Balow is chairman and chief executive officer of Pride Care, which merged with Coloma Emergency Medical Service (CEMS).

“Specific to Dowagiac,” Balow said, “we’ve got plans to add a garage to the facility and renovating that” former branch bank on W. Prairie Ronde.

“We’re in Keeler Township now,” he said, “with a truck based out of the fire department. We’ve been extremely busy. We had a little snafu with our uniforms. We had 1,100 delivered, but the quality wasn’t as good as what had been presented to us, so we negotiated getting out of that contract, so instead of white with blue pants, we’re going to go with light blue shirts and blue pants and rebrand with the Pride Care logo here in the next few months. Once we get the trucks rebranded, our goal is to get some of the newer trucks down here with the ’09s and ’08s.”

“We asked our insurance carrier to take a look at this authority,” City Manager Kevin Anderson said. “Basically, we all have our own individual coverages. The insurance company recommends that we look at a layer of coverage for this group.”

Anderson said a $2 million policy would cost $1,126, or $1,753 for the $5 million limit.

“I think it would be good for us to do something,” the city manager advised Chairman Bill Saunders, the Silver Creek Township supervisor; Wayne Township Supervisor Dr. Frank Butts; Keeler Township Supervisor Bill Kays; and Pokagon Township Supervisor Linda Preston.

Volinia and LaGrange townships were not represented.

Anderson further recommended dividing the cost on a per-capita basis using new census information.

Taxable valuation “seems to make sense for fire because you’re protecting property, where ambulance service is designed to protect people, so per-capita seems fair to me that way — even though I think I take the biggest hit.”

No action was taken pending further consultation with their individual boards and with the other two townships.