A men’s fellowship group is paving the way for communication between the county and a community facing changes to its EMS coverage.

On Thursday, the Men’s Fellowship group of Old Ford Church of Christ is hosting a meeting at the church and is inviting anyone living in the Old Ford/Clark’s Neck fire districts to attend. County Manager Brian Alligood will give an update on the coming changes to EMS service there, and will answer residents’ questions. Also in attendance will be Beaufort County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jerry Langley, who lives in the area, and director of Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office E-911 communications Vic Williams, according to Ed Bolen, a member of the fellowship group.

Bolen said residents in the Old Ford/Clark’s Neck areas might not know what the changes mean, and the fellowship group wanted to create a way to set the record straight.

“We were kind of brainstorming about something we could do as a community service project,” Bolen said. “It’s kind of a way to give everybody the same opportunity and see what the options are right now, and find out ‘What does this mean to me?’”

Commissioners voted last month not to renew a contract with the City of Washington, which has previously provided EMS coverage to the areas. During their October meeting, commissioners weighed three options for coverage: renew the contract with the City of Washington at $157,255, an increase of 2 percent over last year’s contract; contract with the City of Washington to provide a dedicated EMS unit for the area, dedicated to EMS calls only — the unit would not respond to supplement fire calls — for approximately $572,000; or have Beaufort County EMS provide paramedic-level service, which would be offset by billing revenue and cost the county approximately $121,000 from the general fund.

Beaufort County EMS will absorb coverage when the contract with Washington expires on June 30, 2017. The decision also comes with a EMS service district tax increase of 4.5 to 5 cents per $100 property valuation in the next fiscal year, which is one of the reasons the men’s fellowship group is hosting the meeting.

“I think there’s going to be a tax increase. I don’t know that everybody is aware of that,” Bolen said.

Bolen said another issue he hopes to have addressed is who exactly will be affected by the county’s decision: who’s in the Old Ford/Clark’s Neck fire district?

“People are going to be affected who probably don’t know they’re going to be,” Bolen said.

Bolen said he and others in the group have been handing out notices of the event, as well as calling nearby churches.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a good turnout,” he said.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday. Old Ford Church of Christ is located at 6040 U.S. Highway 17 North, Washington.