Niles Township Supervisor Jim Stover said the township is looking at other options for providing ambulance service to its residents, but stopped short of saying it is considering leaving its current provider, Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Service (SMCAS).

“We feel it is important that we have a service available to us if SMCAS for some reason became insolvent,” Stover said Tuesday afternoon. “We will stick with them now until the day they become insolvent.”

Niles Township is the largest of six municipalities with ownership in SMCAS, including the cities of Niles and Buchanan and the townships of Buchanan, Bertrand and Howard. Pokagon and Milton townships also contract SMCAS services, but are not owners.

Stover’s comments come after Niles Mayor Mike McCauslin said during a Niles committee of the whole meeting Monday that the township was considering leaving SMCAS.

McCauslin said it is his opinion the township is considering this because of the following reasons:

• Township officials don’t like that Milton and Pokagon townships have voting rights in SMCAS despite not being owners.

• Township officials don’t like SMCAS director Tim Gray and Niles Fire Chief Larry Lamb, the two people who authored a proposal to merge emergency services in the area.

• Township officials have problems with aspects of the ambulance service’s articles of incorporation.

“They are upset with some minor details. They are upset with some personalities. They are upset with some people they don’t agree with and, yet, they are trying to scuttle what has become one of the premier examples of an ambulance service and how it should run, how it should operate and how it should save lives,” McCauslin said. “That’s what I think is so incredible frustrating.”

Niles Township Treasurer Jim Ringler said Tuesday that the township has no “beef” with Lamb or Gray. Instead, he referenced audits of SMCAS showing six-figure budget deficits for the past two years.

“Bottom line is SMCAS has a spending problem and they aren’t taking any actions to correct it, or at least they haven’t in the last two years,” he said. “If they continue on that path, they will be insolvent.”

Ringler and Stover both said they do not like that Milton and Pokagon townships get a vote in the direction of SMCAS. Stover said he wouldn’t be opposed to allowing Milton or Pokagon an option to buy in to ownership of SMCAS and then allowing them to vote.

Niles Administrator Ric Huff said the impact would be significant if the township leaves SMCAS.

“If we were to lose one of the largest owner municipalities and lose their per parcel assessment, SMCAS would be in very serious trouble,” he said.

Huff said based on what he has seen, SMCAS would be viable for the next 2 to 3 years if nothing changes. After that, SMCAS would likely need to raise its per parcel assessment charge from $20 to between $30 and $35.

The council took no action and made no resolution on the issue.