Emergency services will be the topic of discussion during next week’s joint city-county meeting.

The meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the extension office, will be the second combined meeting this year of the Clark County Fiscal Court and the Winchester Board of Commissioners.

The agenda includes two motions from the revenue sharing committee. The first would authorize the revenue sharing committee to explore the feasibility of merging the city and county fire departments. The second would appoint a committee to re-evaulate the EMS contract between the city and county.

The two departments have always been separate, but there were discussions about merging them several years ago. It never came to fruition.

In 1991, the Winchester Fire Department merged with the Winchester-Clark County Ambulance Service to become Winchester Fire-EMS.

At the same time, city and county officials signed an agreement that the city would run the department, but the county would be responsible for 45 percent of any EMS budget deficits. That agreement has been unchanged for many years.

EMS and staffing has been the subject of numerous discussions in recent months between both the city and county. A recommendation to add 10 new EMS positions, later amended to nine, was requested in the city’s fiscal year 2020 budget, but was ultimately not included. After the new fiscal year began July 1, City Commissioner JoEllen Reed made a motion to create six positions as a compromise. That motion passed on a 3-2 vote, as did two readings of an amended budget ordinance.

To date, the fiscal court has not taken any action concerning EMS.

Other items on the agenda include presenting the fourth quarter revenue sharing check to county officials and comments from the public and both bodies.

The extension office is at 1400 Fortune Drive in the Winchester Industrial Park.