Joint ambulance service petition heading to the public for input

A petition to put a countywide ambulance service measure on the November ballot had been signed by more than 100 people, Columbus Fire Rescue Chief Rich Cowger told the Columbus City Council on June 20.
Cowger described how funding from a new countywide mill levy could maintain advanced life support (ALS) ambulance service throughout the county during a June 15 meeting with the Stillwater County Commissioners.
Cowger told the News that the proposal is not to create a countywide ambulance “district,” which would require an elected board of trustees to oversee revenue from a district’s taxes or fees.
“This is to establish a new funding mechanism to support the existing three ambulance departments,” he said.

JOINT SERVICE
Currently, Columbus Fire Rescue has six paid crew members with ALS credentials – three full-time paramedics and three full-time Advanced EMTs. Four of them are paid through federal SAFER grants that run out at the end of 2017.
“Our initial discussion about countywide EMS funding began when we asked ourselves what we’d do when the grant funding ran out,” Cowger said. “There’s no statutory obligation for counties and cities to provide ambulance service.”
The Park City and Absarokee ambulance departments provide only basic life support, and Columbus often provides ALS as mutual aid to those areas.
Cowger notes that state law allows counties, cities and other agencies to get together and establish a joint ambulance service, with “costs to be apportioned according to the benefits” and revenue to be derived from a mill levy.
State law also allows counties, cities and other agencies to draft interlocal agreements to act as a contract between the parties for something like an ambulance service.
Cowger and Battalion Chief Nick Jacobs are currently paid by the Columbus Rural Fire District, which receives its funding from district taxpayers and from a contract with the city of Columbus. But Cowger and Jacobs are paid for fire services, not ambulance services.
“No funding exists in Stillwater County specifically for emergency medical services,” Cowger said.

MILL MONEY
As currently proposed, a petition to put the EMS measure on the November ballot calls for a levy up to 10 mills, which is about $400,000. Cowger estimates a countywide ambulance service would initially need only 7.13 mills, which is about $290,000. The tax impact of a 7.13-mill levy to a property owner whose home has a market value of $200,000 would be $19.26, he said.
Cowger proposes distributing the revenue from a countywide mill levy to the three separate ambulance departments in Columbus, Absarokee and Park City based on the number of service calls they respond to.
“That would work out to be about $203,000 for Columbus Fire Rescue and about $45,000 each for Absarokee and Park City.” Cowger said.
The collected revenue would go to each ambulance department to be used as their board of trustees and staff see fit.
“For Columbus, this money will go to keeping on four of our ALS personnel after their grant funding runs out at the end of next year,” Cowger said. “This is money for existing staff.”
Fees collected from ambulance calls typically go to emergency medical equipment, including new vehicles, but the department also relies on grants.
“Ninety percent of the cost of our last ambulance came from grants,” he said.
Fire district taxes would continue as before, Cowger noted.
“This proposal is for emergency medical services only,” he said.
Cowger also proposes establishing an advisory board, primarily composed of medical professionals appointed by the county commissioners, that would periodically evaluate the performance of the three departments in terms of quality of care and adequate staffing numbers to meet the demand.
When asked about the proposal, Absarokee Fire Chief Cody Keller said he had spoken to Absarokee Ambulance Director Georgie Hamel and they agreed they weren’t prepared to comment on the proposal.
Keller said they wanted to look at other funding options, and he noted that the Absarokee Fire Board could discuss the matter at their regular meeting in July.

BALLOT MEASURE
All eligible county voters can sign the petition, not just property owners, Stillwater County Clerk & Recorder Heidi Stadel said. At least 15 percent of the county’s 5,600 eligible voters must sign the petition to get it on the November ballot, which comes to about 840 people.
Stadel said the petitions need to be in her office by early August so they can be verified and, if the number of signatures is sufficient, the measure can be included in the printed ballots for the November election.
If the petition is approved, supporters of the measure would have two to three months to “educate voters about the need for a countywide ambulance service” before the election, Cowger said.
“If we miss the November election, we can try running it in May, when schools have their school board elections, or through a special election using mail-in ballots,” he said.