Oftentimes, a rumor is just a rumor.

On Friday, a post on social media claimed the Bradford Township supervisors were discontinuing the usage of Bradford City Ambulance to respond to calls within the township, and were selecting another service instead.

Supervisor Chairman Jim Erwin said, “That’s totally false. We were checking options because our rate went up. We thought maybe we would check around. We didn’t make any concrete plans to go with anybody.”

He added for the coming year, the city ambulance agreement will continue with the township.

“We’ve talked about sitting down with the city” to talk about the increase, Erwin said. “There’s no way we’re going with somebody else at this point for next year.”

When contacted by The Era, Bradford City Fire Chief Eric Taylor said he saw the same rumor. He agreed that the contract with the township went up, but disagreed at the amount of the increase.

“It goes up per usage in various areas,” he said, explaining how the contract fees are determined.

The chief explained he had been in contact with one of the supervisors on Friday, and agreed that it was necessary to sit down and hash it out with township officials.

“Their usage went up 119% over three years,” Taylor said, explaining that more use means more costs. “The insurance doesn’t pay all the time, Medicare doesn’t pay all the time. Medicaid doesn’t pay all the time.

“We don’t even bill what all our costs are,” he said. It’s not about trying to make up lost revenue or anything else, the chief said, adding, “It’s about everybody paying a share.”

About 15 years ago, city officials told township and borough officials in the Tuna Valley that they needed to find a way to support the city’s ambulance service, which had been serving the region at the cost of the city taxpayers alone.

Since that time, municipalities have entered into contracts for the city’s services.

The City of Bradford maintains a full-time ambulance service, and several private ambulance services throughout the region exist as well.