No Go

Citing concerns with an ultra-tight timeline and the federal election in November, the Stillwater County Commissioners have declined to pass a resolution of intent that would have placed a referendum for an ambulance district on a mail ballot this December.
While all three commissioners said the Advanced Life Support (ALS) service currently provided by Columbus Fire Rescue was important and needed to remain in place, none were willing to go the route of a referendum to make that happen.
“This is a hard decision for me to make,” said Commissioner Gerald Dell at Tuesday morning’s agenda meeting.
Dell also said he felt as if the commissioners were “being under the gun to get something accomplished.”

WHAT WAS BEING ASKED
Columbus Fire Chief Rich Cowger, the Columbus Rural Fire Board and Stillwater Billings Clinic Dr. David Kane had requested the commissioners use their authority allowed under Montana Code Annotated 7-11-1003 to create a referendum creating a special ambulance district that would put the matter on a mail ballot for December. Taxpayers would then have voted yes or no on the referendum.
The ambulance district would have been funded through a mill levy and would pay for four Columbus Fire Rescue paramedics and advanced EMT positions currently funded through two grants.
One of those grants ends in March 2017 and funds one position. Cowger said he had reapplied for that grant and is “cautiously optimistic” it will be awarded to them again. The second grant funds three positions and ends in November 2017. Cowger said he will reapply for that one as well but given the fact they have been awarded it twice, there is not a high likelihood of getting it a third time.
Cowger explains the grants are meant to get positions up and going for a couple of years and then transfer all the funding to the respective agency.
That leaves approximately $200,000 that the Columbus Rural Fire District must find as permanent funding for positions that all involved agree are necessary to continue to provide ALS service throughout Stillwater County.
The board had proposed funding those positions through a mill levy with a maximum of 13.3 mills on all property. That would translate into $17.96 per year for a property with a market value of $100,000, $35.92 for a property with a market value of $200,000 and $52.38 for a property with a market value of $300,000.

IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES
Cowger and Fire Board President Curt Robbins said the ALS service currently provided is so important that they will do whatever they must to keep it alive.
“We’re not going to let it die,” said Robbins at Tuesday morning commission meeting.
Cowger said an ambulance district still needs to be created and they will continue to push toward the end.
In the meantime, ambulance rates will be raised and considerably, said Cowger, as they are left with no choice in getting revenue in place. However, even a rate raise will not generate enough money to maintain those four positions. And such a raise will also bring negative impacts, such as people hesitating to call for an ambulance when needed because they can’t afford it.

COMPLICATIONS
The primary complication discussed at Tuesday’s meeting was the federal election in November. County Clerk & Recorder Heidi Stadel said it would be very difficult for her office to run the federal election and then turn around and run a mail ballot election. Stadel consulted the Secretary of State who does not recommend running an election immediately following a federal election.
However, Stadel said it was possible to do. Extra staff would likely have to be hired.
The Columbus Rural Fire District was willing to pay the costs of the mail ballot election.

SCOLDING
Following a reading of the proposed referendum that had been written by Cowger and reviewed by Stillwater County Attorney Nancy Rohde, the commissioners declined to approve the matter. They also somewhat scolded Cowger, with Commissioner Dennis Shupak saying “we’d be wasting money” to proceed with the mail ballot due to the extremely tight timeline. Commissioner Dell told Cowger he had known about the funding issue for months and not come to them until May.
However, according to a letter dated June 4, 2014 to the commissioners as well as an email exchange dated Nov. 27, 2015, Cowger has been talking to the commissioners about the need to create a funding mechanism for the four grant positions since June 2014.

A DELAY
Cowger had initially embarked upon a petition drive a handful of months ago after getting approval from the commissioners to move ahead. That initial petition 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. Approximately 500 signatures had already been collected in the first drive.
Time was of the essence as in order for taxpayer money to be available in 2018, the election had to held by the end of this year.