NEW ATHENS, Ill. — A small town in the Metro East will no longer have an ambulance service.
Signs that say "EMTs needed" line the front of the Village of New Athens ambulance service headquarters.
However, that won't be the case anymore, as the town's service officially ends on June 2.
"I'm really sad about it. To see it have to go, it hurts," resident Arlene Geppert said.
The ambulance service in New Athens started as volunteer work only.
Geppert was one of the very first volunteer EMTs. Now that MedStar is taking over, she's worried about response times.
"When we had 16 people, we mostly all lived in town here and we were there within three to four minutes when our pagers went off. It's going to be the response time. We're out here in the middle of nowhere," Geppert said.
Mayor Joe Behnken says there was a decrease in demand for the ambulance service and a shortage of EMT workers.
"Well, what the village board did was, they decided to increase the standby wages from $13.67 to $20 an hour," Mayor Behnken said.
Behnken said when the board increased wages to attract sufficient staffing; the mayor said the village started losing money. Since September, the New Athens Ambulance Service has lost over $180,000.
"A village twice our size couldn't afford that type couldn't sustain or afford that type of laws. If the Ambulance Service continues, it will bankrupt this village," Behnken said.
Mayor Behnken said this is affecting rural towns all over the state, not just New Athens.
"That's why the services like ours throughout and throughout the entire state of Illinois are having issues. It is a crisis," he stated.
Behnken is asking for the State of Illinois to step in and help towns like New Athens.
"I'm going to ask them, do you want people dying on the streets? That's the end here: if you don't have adequate medical transport service. How do you provide a critical medical transport service? If you're not willing to pay for it?" said Behnken.
5 On Your Side reached out to state leaders to see if there are options to help out the community, but we have not heard back yet.