At the Washington City Council’s Feb. 27 meeting, council members discussed how to plug up a $300,000 hole in its budget after Beaufort County EMS elected to take over services for Washington Township, usually covered by Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS.

The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners recently decided to cancel its contract with the city’s EMS to provide services for Washington Township.

The options discussed Feb. 27 include:

• Subtracting the contract amount for the city to provide EMS coverage in the Old Ford and Clark’s Neck areas;
• Providing EMS coverage to Washington and Washington Park residents under the existing contract;
• Informing the county that the city will turn over EMS services effective July 1;
• Drafting another contract for the city to provide EMS services in city limits and enter into an agreement for the county to pay for providing that coverage in the city limits.

This is all part of a plan to bring EMS services under one authority, operated by the county. This is a mostly positive step for Beaufort County, as it connects services across the county, leads to better communication and usually leads to better coverage.

Yes, if Beaufort County EMS takes over Washington Township coverage, it hurts the City of Washington. But if it’s part of a larger plan to better serve residents, then officials need to strike a compromise.

If the county wants to operate the Washington coverage area, it should contract with the city and compensate it for some of those services. That way, the overall plan for revamping the system is still on track, and the city won’t have to weather such a large dent in its budget. In the future, this may also save city residents from shouldering some of the tax burden to cover that budget shortfall.

That’s a fair compromise from which all parties could benefit.