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Gemma the pot-bellied pig can’t keep living in Kingston Township, judge says

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Paul Lumia: Delaware & Lehigh Trail nearing completion in heart of Wyoming Valley

<p>Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George can end the bickering about his newly implemented change to the city&#8217;s ambulance coverage by doing one rather straightforward thing.</p><p>Release the data.</p><p>Let people see a weekly, or perhaps monthly, report detailing how often the city&#8217;s firefighter/paramedic crews respond to emergencies, and how frequently backup ambulance provider Trans-Med gets called into service. Likewise, be transparent in those reports about response times. How many minutes elapsed before the units reached the scenes?</p><p>And, finally, show us the money. Is Trans-Med providing a better value than the former setup, in which three surrounding municipalities and Trans-Med shared responsibilities as primary backup to various parts of Wilkes-Barre?</p><p>Allow the numbers to drive this public-safety decision. So far, too much of the discussion has been driven either by George&#8217;s platitudes about doing what&#8217;s best for the city or detractors&#8217; impassioned statements about &#8220;putting profits over patients.&#8221;</p><p>The people who live in and visit Wilkes-Barre deserve a better barometer by which to gauge whether this emergency-response system works. Let them see the numbers.</p><p>Since announcing his plan to make Trans-Med the go-to provider when the city&#8217;s two ambulances are not available, the mayor has taken heat from critics who claim that the private firm&#8217;s ambulances can be unreliable. In March, however, George defended the pending implementation of his plan, saying that having only one primary backup would be &#8220;easier.&#8221;</p><p>The mayor also has maintained that, under the agreement with Luzerne-based Trans-Med, two of its ambulances routinely will be positioned in the city &#8211; doubling the number of available units within Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s borders from two to four. Furthermore, Trans-Med served as sole backup prior to October 2011, when then-Mayor Tom Leighton divvied the duty among adjacent municipalities.</p><p>As recently as last week, George reportedly met with Trans-Med officials to iron out concerns about its crew deployment. The mayor indicated he will be receiving weekly reports and evaluating the setup after a six-month trial period. But he declined to give a reporter any specifics about response times.</p><p>Only a few years ago, as a city councilman, George frequently challenged his predecessor in the mayor&#8217;s office for perceived shortcomings, including a lack of openness.</p><p>Councilman George, we suspect, would have asked for and expected concrete data about the city&#8217;s ambulance coverage. So Mayor George certainly should understand its importance to the public, and act to supply the information in a timely fashion.</p><p>Without facts as a foundation, the opposing sides of this ambulance argument are simply blowing smoke.</p><style>
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Our Opinion: Let numbers drive the debate on Wilkes-Barre’s ambulance coverage