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TROY — At its meeting Aug. 25, the Troy City Council unanimously approved Star EMS as the city’s new contractor for emergency medical services.
The city has been contracting for EMS services since 1981. Most recently, Troy had been in a three-year agreement with Alliance Mobile Health that began at the end of 2022.
Late last year, the council received a report on the state of the city’s EMS services that found room for improvement. It noted that minutes could be shaved off response times.
This led to the city soliciting proposals for a new vendor in May 2025. Five companies attended a meeting on the topic, including AmeriPro Health EMS, LifeLine Ambulance, Medstar Ambulance, Star EMS and Universal Macomb Ambulance.
In the end, Star EMS was the sole bidder, but officials were satisfied with what it offered.
“After these discussions and meetings, the EMS committee agreed that Star EMS would be able to meet the requirements and provide the services being requested by the city of Troy,” said Peter Hullinger, the fire chief of Troy.
The new contract begins Jan. 1, 2026. The two-year contract includes the option to renew annually for another three years. The cost is around $771,100 for the first year and around $794,200 for the second year.
Officials noted that if the city doesn’t see improvement, it may establish its own in-house EMS services in the future, instead of continuing to use third-party vendors.
“I mean, I think we are making progress from eight minutes to six minutes. That’s the goal that we set forward for our insourcing also,” said Troy City Councilmember Hirak Chanda. “So, we’ll give it a try (to see) if it can be achieved with outsourced vendors. … Otherwise, we’ll move forward in the long run for an in-house EMS.”
Troy Mayor Ethan Baker said via email that staff carefully examined the issue.
“This is a decision made after much due diligence,” Baker said. “Members of our public safety team — first responders from our (police), fire and dispatch — were an important part of this decision-making process. Key to their review was a determination that Star is best prepared to bring key operational improvements our first responders have identified in this important part of our service delivery. At the end of the day, we are listening to our first responders — the experts in our city for public safety.”
For more information, visit troymi.gov.
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