Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS has nearly 2,400 calls come in yearly and houses just an EMT-Basic rescue unit. At Tuesday’s Washington City Council meeting Fire Chief Robbie Rose asked the city for more funding.

With a population of roughly 10,000 residences, Washington EMS receives the highest call volume in the area, Rose told to the City Council.

Currently, the city runs two EMS ambulances with at least two people on the trucks, but one of the EMTs has to be a certified paramedic.

There are three levels of EMT care in North Carolina, EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate and EMT-Paramedic. Washington would like to go to EMT-Paramedic, which would be the highest level of care.

The area’s only EMT-Paramedic care is in Greenville, according to Rose.

“It will increase the level of care — the in-field emergency care,” Rose said. “It will increase us to the highest level of care you can provide.”

The city council however, tabled Rose’s request for more funding until it can figure out a way to finance it.

Rose has asked the city for just under $59,000, and Brian Alligood, Washington city manager, applied for a $22,000 grant from Vidant, which would help offset the costs from the city.

The money needed from the city would help pay for equipment, personnel costs and supplies.

“You have to have at least two paramedics on each shift, in case one is off, the other is here,” Rose said.

According to Rose, council members William Pitt and Doug Mercer had a good understanding and were supportive of the city’s need for an upgrade in EMT service.

“Everything is about money, that level of service increase is part of the expansion project, and that is going to cost money to do that,” Rose said. “Those guys (city council) will have to look for the funding to enable us to do that.”

If the funds come through, Rose wants to have a paramedic truck and will staff two paramedics on each shift. The paramedics would work 24-hour shifts and be off 48-hours.