BATON ROUGE - Despite being retired, a group of former EMS administrators and paramedics is taking a hard stance against a proposal to merge EMS with the Baton Rouge Fire Department.

The "Coalition for East Baton Rouge Parish Department of EMS" is made up of about a dozen retired men and women, some of whom helped create the agency 40 years ago.

"If you ask any one of them, they will tell you, 'I work for East Baton Rouge Emergency Medical Services.' It is important to them. They're not a division of a fire department that just happens to do medical work," said Ralph Ladnier, former Director of EBRP Communications District.

The merger is an organizational move that's common across the country, and the goal of the mayor-president.

"I just think a whole bunch is efficiency and not dupl

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