Fire board wants to rebuild Absarokee ambulance service

The Absarokee Fire District Board of Trustees took steps at its Aug. 11 meeting toward the goal of hiring two paramedics and providing training to rebuild the Absarokee Volunteer Ambulance Service.
The plan is to improve the service’s capability, but it will require local tax money.
The district recently submitted a $174,024 budget request to the county, which will require nearly 10 mills in tax revenue, Secretary-treasurer Randy Gray said, but the district is permitted to levy up to 50 mills.
Fire Chief Cody Keller explained after the meeting that Absarokee currently has 11 EMTs, including two Advanced EMTs.
“But the real problem is that only five of them live within 10 minutes of the fire station,” he said.
According to Stillwater County 911 dispatch figures, Columbus Fire Rescue responds on a four-year average to 36 percent of ambulance calls in the Absarokee call area.
The Absarokee Fire District’s goal is to hire one full-time paramedic to train local ambulance personnel so they can move up to become Advanced EMTs and to train members of the community, Keller said.
The paramedic would also be available to provide advanced life support for local ambulance calls. A second paramedic would be hired on a part-time basis to respond to calls. Both paramedics would have to live in the Absarokee area, he said.

THE CATALYST
The decision to build up the Absarokee ambulance crew followed an attempt by the Columbus Fire Rescue board to create a countywide ambulance service area.
After encountering resistance to the proposal in Absarokee, Columbus Fire Rescue withdrew its petition in early August and is now pursuing the creation of an ambulance district that would exclude Absarokee and Park City.
Discussion about the Columbus proposal at the Absarokee Fire Board’s July meeting was lengthy, Chairman John Noe noted when reviewing the minutes.
“We don’t need to go over that again,” he said.
The first step toward rebuilding the Absarokee Volunteer Ambulance Service is to determine who’s in charge. According to the service’s bylaws, the “ambulance and all property controlled by said service are owned by the current members of the Absarokee Volunteer Fire Department,” who also have final control over the ambulance service.
That wording left out the fire board, and discussion turned to setting up the local ambulance service as a department under the fire district, the same way the Absarokee and Nye fire departments are.
Gray said he contacted Kate Dinwiddie, a Bozeman attorney, to help the fire board straighten out its bylaws.
“We need a legal clarification,” Gray said. “The wording we have now is a little sloppy.”
Gray noted that state law permitted a fire district to provide medical services, but first the board needed to round up all the pertinent legal documents – including the district’s own bylaws, which couldn’t be located before the meeting.
Fireman Joe Lohof had read through the board’s archives and found references to the creation of an ambulance service in Absarokee in board minutes from 1960. The first ambulance cost $800 and responded to six calls that year, he said, but the district was reluctant to pay for it.
“They didn’t have much money back then, so the story is mixed up,” he said.
Noe recalled that the town doctor, William Henrickson, who was also a fireman, had pushed for an ambulance.
“Two guys bought it and donated it to the fire district,” Noe recalled.
Lohof referred to the 1960 minutes and explained that the fire board would not pay for the ambulance but agreed to pay half the cost of building an addition to the fire hall to store the vehicle.
Assistant Fire Chief Corey Arnold noted that the fire board would have to take the lead if they chose to create a separate ambulance district.
It could take two to five years to set up a board and petition for a mill levy to fund the new district, he said.
“We’d have to do something similar to what Columbus has suggested,” Noe pointed out.
But first the board needs to clarify the ambulance service’s legal standing – among other things, bill paying isn’t consistent and the board is liable for accidents but has no oversight, Gray said.
“We need to have a professional look at it,” he said.