At a Chester County meeting, two commenters detailed how uncertainty in federal grant programs and reimbursement rates is affecting local fire and emergency medical services and asked county officials to extend an existing ambulance/EMS contract at the current rate for one year.

The discussion matters because federal grants and payer reimbursements fund equipment, training and part of personnel costs for Chester County’s volunteer and paid emergency responders; speakers said changes at the federal level could reduce available support and make recruitment and retention more difficult.

Speaker 1, Commenter, described recent federal action and grant uncertainty, saying, “they're going after a lot of stuff in there, a lot of wasteful money and millions and millions and millions of dollars that they funneled out.” The speaker said the county’s fire departments and emergency services have not been singled out in those reviews but warned that the broader restructuring could “affect everybody until they can restructure.” The speaker noted the National Fire Academy has rescinded a prior closure and “they're gonna fund it,” and they raised concern that the federal government’s 2026 budget proposal would eliminate the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a program they said previously supplied many of the county’s vehicles and equipment.

Speaker 1 also described grant timing and scopes: a grant discussed “runs out in November” and, if awarded, “it'll run for the next four years,” providing funds for turnout gear, equipment, and recruitment incentives. The speaker said Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and other federal programs remain in flux and that some grants “do not specifically name the AFG,” leaving those awards “in limbo.”

Speaker 2, Commenter (business), representing a local ambulance/EMS provider, asked the county to consider extending the provider’s contract “at the current rate, for this year,” and said paperwork for a longer agreement is in process. The provider proposed later moving to a three-year contract with a 3% annual escalator beginning in fiscal year 2027. The speaker described reimbursement pressures from government payers, noting that Medicare and Tennessee’s TennCare pay fixed rates and that “probably about around 72%” of their calls are billed to government payers. The speaker also said there remains a 90-day out clause in the agreement for either side and that the provider had been operating in the county since the 1990s.

Budget and staffing figures cited during the discussion included a remaining local line-item balance of $47,598 “not including the salary” for the current year, and several comments that volunteer recruitment and retention are national problems. Speaker 1 credited a staff member named Brooke with recruiting more volunteers in eight months than her predecessor did in two to three years and described a mixed county/city volunteer model in which volunteers often serve both jurisdictions.

Speakers also discussed local programs and operational changes the county has pursued: an EMR (emergency medical responder) program that “is definitely helping the patients out” and inter-county coordination with nearby jurisdictions such as Chesapeake County and McNair County. The ambulance provider said the volume in Chesapeake County is “stable” at about 200 calls a month, a point raised to explain call patterns and hospital transports.

No formal motion or vote to extend the contract was recorded in the transcript. The provider asked the commissioners to “give us a shot to stay here for another year,” but the transcript does not show board action or direction to staff.

County officials and staff were not identified in the transcript excerpts provided; the statements above are attributed only to the meeting speakers who spoke on these topics. The county has not recorded a decision in the provided transcript excerpts; the request for a contract extension and concerns about federal grant and reimbursement changes remained under discussion at the time of the remarks.