Frankfort Fire Department Interim Chief Wayne Briscoe wants a better way to recruit and retain paramedics. Starting next week, his department will be one of only a handful able to offer EMT's a certificate paramedic program. Twenty two people in the inaugural class will spend a little more than a year training in the classroom and in the field.

"Meeting two days a week. Getting our clinical and stuff done, and then allowing them to still continue and work and provide for their family," says Chief Briscoe. He calls the program non-traditional and inclusive.

"We've got students from the Frankfort Fire Department. We have students from Anderson County EMS, Owen County EMS. We've got some Winchester students, Jessamine County, and we just picked up a couple more from Elizabethtown and Mercer County," he says.

Their first class is full. They expect to start their second certificate program in early 2019.