HONESDALE, PA — Honesdale Borough Council opened its meeting May 15 with a motion to hire a part-time security guard. The security guard will work at borough hall during public meetings for a rate of $30 per hour.

Before the council voted unanimously in favor of hiring the security guard, councilor James Hamill asked whether or not the borough had an evacuation route in place in case of emergency.

“What if something transpires where we do not have another egress from these council chambers… we’re either going out the window or over the balcony,” Hamill said. “I understand this is very helpful to have somebody here screening… but I wonder if it’s fully fleshed out to the point where I still feel comfortable sitting in this position [in case of an emergency].”

Next on the docket, Kyle Mihalik—CEO of Professional Medical Response, LLC—addressed the council. Mihalik established the business in northeastern PA in 2020 and its EMTs have been active since January of this year, serving Wayne, Pike, Monroe, Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. Mihalik came asking for the borough to consider granting his company the approval it needs in order to be dispatched to Honesdale through Wayne County’s 911 center.

“So often in the [borough] of Honesdale, we’re in the local area, and we hear that call go out over the radio system, and we’re helpless. We can’t do anything. We can’t go to that call, because we’re not dispatched to that call,” he said, and that when somebody needs an ambulance or a medic, each minute is crucial. “Every minute that [somebody’s] in cardiac arrest, their chances of survival go down 10 percent.”

Mihalik also said this service would come at no cost to the borough, and that the council’s approval would not make Professional Medical Response Honesdale’s sole provider, just another option in case its vehicles happen to be closest to the patient in need when the 911 call comes in.

He further said that his business in other communities has been welcomed by the current EMS providers, who have been stretched too thin. 

The council did not make a decision that night. Honesdale’s next council meeting will take place June 19.