Youngstown City Council approved $65,000 to spend on a feasibility study to find options for the future of emergency services.

The bulk of the study will look into ambulances. It will find out if it's possible for the city to create its own ambulance service so officials can compare it to the third party services they use now. The city currently has a contract with Emergency Medical Transportation until 2026 which costs the city $4,000,000.

The study will also look into what it would be like for the city to incorporate their own ambulance services within the fire department and to keep it separate. 

“There are a lot of things that we need to know to make a decision and the public needs to know to have a decision made on their part,” Youngstown Councilwoman Anita Davis said.

Councilwoman Basia Adamczak said the decision won’t solely be based on the cheapest option that comes out of the study. She posed the example of, if the city’s own ambulance service would cost a little more than what they are paying now, but the quality of service drastically improves, it's something they could possibly go with.

The study will also give insight on consolidating the fire departments from seven stations into five. It will find the best locations for five stations so they can all service the city quickly and evenly.

“It's about downsizing the number of buildings, not the number of people,” Councilwoman Davis said.

Councilwoman Adamczak said right now, consolidating the fire departments is not something they want to do but they just want to be prepared in case budget cuts ever require that.

The study also looks into Mayor Tito Brown's plan for a safety campus. He’s suggested moving police and fire from the downtown area to a building in Youngstown northside. Councilwoman Davis is against the idea of that campus right now.

“Look at the distance. When you pull it up north, when seconds matter … those are seconds that decide whether or not you live or die, whether or not your house goes up in smoke,” Councilwoman Davis said. “From my background as a police officer … I did 36 years so, I know what it means when they say seconds count.”

Davis said she’s open to seeing if the campus is something that makes sense when they get the results from the study.

The study will be done by an independent group. There's no timetable on when the study will be completed - but Davis said it will definitely be done before the EMT ambulance contract is up in 2026.