The town council voted 3-2 on Thursday to retain the service after weeks of deliberations that revealed significant issues about the finances and management of the Apex EMS operation.

As a compromise, Wake County dropped it's bid to take control of the town's emergency management service. It offered to work jointly with the town, as it does with the nonprofit Cary Area EMS, by assuming responsibility for revenue collections and distribute money according to a set budget.

For months, Wake County has warned that it would require Apex to pay about $113,000 more in shared expenses and centralized billing costs.

Wake County's offer came earlier this week after Apex council members spent a month scrutinizing the numbers behind the request to transfer EMS to Wake County.

The process has been ripe with questions about the handling of funds, lack of information, unanticipated expenses and the loss of six Apex EMS employees.

"Anyone who knows me, knows that public safety is important to me," said Councilman Gene Schulze, a former volunteer EMT in New York. "I think (keeping EMS) is a step towards keeping a promise to our citizens."

Council members Bryan Gossage and Lance Olive voted to keep the service; Bill Jensen and Mike Jones voted to end the town's involvement.

"The service we get is from Wake County. Apex EMS contracts with Wake County," Jones said. "I argue that there is some financial risk for the next year. My question is for what reward? The service is not going to change."

Mayor Keith Weatherly, who is not a voting member of council, also weighed in against retaining EMS.

"Other than the emotional feeling we might have...I don't think our citizens are any better off for us to provide that subsidy."

Because of the confusion over the transition to Wake County, the town has lost six emergency service workers. Wake County approached Apex EMS employees in March -- two months before the proposal appeared before the full council -- about applying for jobs in anticipation of the merger.

Now, it could cost the town about $99,210 to train a new set of employees.

Gossage, the mayor pro tem, and Olive voiced ethical and moral concerns about the past spending of EMS dollars on the fire department instead of on emergency medical services.

Now that the town is keeping EMS, the town is planning some operational changes.

Apex Town Manager Bruce Radford is expected to separate fire and emergency medical services into two departments. Current Assistant Apex EMS Chief Nicky Winstead, who was set to retire, will stay on for another few months. The new EMS chief will report to Assistant Town Manager Mike Wilson. "Based upon this new model, the costs to the Town of Apex decrease dramatically and staff is able to recommend we retain the service in house and retain what local control we have," Radford wrote in an email sent to the council before the meeting.