Fire Board seeks commission help with ambulance district

A more efficient route has been found to the monumental task of collecting signatures from 25 percent of registered voters to get a petition creating an ambulance district on a mail ballot this winter.
Allowed under Montana Code Annotated 7-11-1003, county commissioners are authorized to create special districts “whenever the public convenience and necessity may require.”
And that is precisely what the Columbus Rural Fire Board and Stillwater Billings Clinic’s Dr. David Kane asked the Stillwater County Commissioners to do Monday afternoon.
Specifically, the board asked commissioners for a referendum on the creation of a special ambulance district that would put the matter on a mail ballot for December. Taxpayers would then vote yes or no on the referendum, leaving the ultimate decision in the public’s hands.
The Columbus Rural Fire Board would pay for the ballot election and do all of the legwork required, said Board Chairman Curt Robbins.
The ambulance district would be funded through a mill levy and would pay for four Columbus Fire Rescue paramedics and EMT positions currently funded through a grant. That grant ends in November 2017.
Columbus Chief Rich Cowger had started a petition drive a handful of months ago that initially encompassed Absarokee and Park City. After meeting resistance from Absarokee first responders, Cowger scrapped that effort and with the support of the Columbus Rural Fire Board, refocused on creating a district in which Columbus Fire already provides EMS services.
The petition drive had to be restarted from ground zero.

And with the clock ticking, the discovery of the law that allows commissioners to put a referendum on the ballot could be what allows the effort to go before voters this year.
If it is not voted on this year, there will be no taxpayer funding possible until 2019.
At Monday’s meeting, Cowger told the commissioners that there was no risk to them by ordering the referendum because taxpayers would have the final say on passing it.
Kane told the commissioners he disagreed – sort of.
“There is a risk if you don’t approve it,” said Kane.
That risk is the loss of the four staff positions which currently provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) to the entire county.
Commissioner Maureen Davey said she had concerns about how much it would cost large property owners like herself. Davey also expressed concerns regarding the already busy commissioners having to shoulder the workload for the referendum, which the board assured her would not happen. However she also acknowledged the importance of ALS service, saying “there was no doubt” that it was needed.
In the end, the commissioners tentatively agreed to a tight sequence of required filings, public hearings and legal advertising, starting with the Aug. 30 agenda meeting.