BENTONVILLE — Benton County is still gathering information on the cost of ambulance service after more than two years of discussion, prompting one county official to question the process.
A meeting of the Benton County Quorum Court’s Public Safety Committee is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday. Ambulance service and possible reimbursement of costs for constables is on the agenda.
At A Glance
The Costs
Ambulance service to the unincorporated areas of Benton County is provided by municipal fire departments in Rogers, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Bella Vista, Pea Ridge, Gravette and Springdale and by the Northeast Benton County Fire Department. The county worked with service providers to reimburse them for their costs since 2010. The Benton County Quorum Court appropriated $100,000 for ambulance service in 2011, increased that to $150,000 in 2012 and to $300,000 in 2013.
Source: Staff Report
The county has asked current ambulance service providers for information on their costs and the amount of money they need from the county to continue providing service into the county’s unincorporated areas.
The estimated cost of an ambulance run varies among providers. That affects the overall price they attach to the service they provide. The subsidy requests for 2014 range from $10,000 from Bella Vista, which reported 42 calls for service in the county in 2012, to $416,422 from Siloam Springs, which reported 391 calls for service from the county in 2012. The Northeast Benton County Fire Department is asking the county to provide a subsidy of $204,100 for 2014. Rogers seeks $209,302. Benton County budgeted $300,000 for ambulance service subsidies in 2013. The Quorum Court has discussed increasing that to $450,000 in 2014.
Marshal Watson, county emergency services administrator, said the staff is working to get as much information as possible for the Quorum Court.
“Obviously, this is a decision that is going to lie in the hands of the Quorum Court,” Watson said.
Justice of the Peace Tom Allen said he’s concerned the county is still in the information-gathering stage and the information seems to be inconsistent.
“My first reaction is we haven’t made much progress,” Allen said. “We’ve been discussing this since 2010 and it seems like we’re back to square one, trying to review all these numbers and determine how they come up with them.”
County Judge Bob Clinard can’t say if the cities’ costs are accurate, saying there are too many variables. The key, he said, is the cities have decided what their costs are and the county has to negotiate with them.
“In their minds, in their way of calculating things, they say these numbers are correct,” Clinard said. “I can’t say that they’re not, but it’s a lot more money than we expected it to be.”
The county commissioned a study last year to examine of the cost of ambulance service to the unincorporated areas. The cost of a county-owned and -operated system was estimated at $3 million in startup costs and $2 million in annual operating costs after the first year, Clinard said. The cost of continuing to have the cities and NEBCO provide the service would be just over $1 million in 2014 with the estimated cost increasing to $1.2 million in 2016, according to a projection Watson provided.
Clinard said the county needs to decide if it will pay to provide the service, how much it can pay and how it can pay the costs. Watson said the staff is working on possible funding mechanisms that include a emergency medical service district system with fees assessed on each structure in the district and another funding plan that would require a millage be levied on property in unincorporated areas of the county. Either funding plan would require the county to seek voter approval of fees or a tax increase.
Clinard said the need for voter approval means the Quorum Court has to make the decision how to proceed.
“We can’t go for an election until we know what it’s gong to cost and how we’re going to pay for it,” he said. “It’s a chicken-and-egg deal. I’m going to lay it on the JPs a little bit. They have to make some decisions. This is complicated. There are no easy solutions.”
Justice of the Peace Patrick Carr, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said the justices of the peace will have to look at some basic questions.
“Ethically, should we provide the service? Probably,” Carr said. “Benton County is one of the state’s largest counties and people have an expectation that if you pick up the phone and call 911 an ambulance will show up at your doorstep. If you look at the financing options, it will probably require a referendum and I’m all for giving the people a chance to vote on things. Until we get all the data in front of us I can’t say what, but we’ve got to figure out something. The question is what?”