BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s discussion of how best to provide rural ambulance is proceeding, but is far from over, officials said Friday.

Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, said he’s satisfied the county is making progress, but said he plans to push to keep the issue alive until some solution is reached.

“I don’t think anybody’s really happy with the setup we have now where the county judge has to negotiate with the cities every year on the best rates,” Moore said. “When the pan boils dry, I think we’ll end up with some kind of hybrid system with the county working with some of the current providers to cover some areas and operating its own system in other areas.”

The county has worked with the eight fire departments — Bella Vista, Bentonville, Gravette, Northeast Benton County Fire Department, Pea Ridge, Rogers, Siloam Springs and Springdale — that provide rural ambulance service to determine an acceptabl reimbursement for the service.

The county spent $100,000 in 2011, $150,000 in 2012 and $300,000 for 2013, dividing the money among the departments according to the numbers of calls the departments responded to. The county has reached tentative agreements with six departments for 2014, with money for Pea Ridge and NEBCO still pending, and has agreed to work on a formula to use in 2015 and beyond.

Siloam Springs officials agreed to reduce their 2014 request, but made the deal contingent on finding an agreeable formula by the end of this year.

Representatives of Rogers, Gravette, Siloam Springs and NEBCO all said Friday they hadn't been contacted about the formula. Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4, said the county needs to get to work on the formula if it's to be completed by the end of the year.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Allen said when told the cities hadn’t yet been involved in discussions. “We’re only one part of the equation. We’re going to have to get the cities and the county together on this. If we meet again and that’s still not been done I think it’s going to put some real pressure on the county to reach out and start getting the input from the cities. We need to roll up our sleeves and get after it.”

Kara Funk, chairman of the NEBCO board; Tom Jenkins, Rogers fire chief; and Greg Neely, Siloam Springs fire chief; all said they were willing to work with the county if asked.

“We have not been contacted, formally or informally, by anyone at the county to discuss the formula,” Neely said.

Gravette Mayor Byron Warren also said he hasn’t been contacted about the formula, but said he’d been asked if Gravette might expand its coverage area if the county is unable to reach a long-term agreement with Siloam Springs.

“I told the judge I would do whatever I can to help out,” Warren said.

Warren said he doesn’t think the formula needs to be complicated.

“I think the county judge had it right the first time,” Warren said. “The county had $100,000 and they said we’ll take the runs out in the county and divide that $100,000 according to the number of runs. I don’t see any reason why we can’t go off run volume. Some of the cities are figuring in their overhead, how much it takes to mow the grass, their whole budget.”

Warren said the cities were being greedy and should put service to residents before any other consideration.

“When will the greed stop and when can we start helping whole county?” Warren asked. “We’re all still Benton County.”

The Committee of the Whole discussed ambulance service options, including a county-operated system, for about two hours Tuesday and left the topic on the agenda for the Aug. 13 meeting. The Finance Committee has recommended paying six of the eight fire departments that provide service for 2014 and is set to discuss funding for Pea Ridge and the Northeast Benton County Fire Department’s service when the panel meets Aug. 6.

Requests for those two were delayed when the justices of the peace asked for more information on Pea Ridge’s plans to upgrade its service.

Marshal Watson, county administrator of public safety, presented the justices of the peace with projected budget based on a county-run service with four or five ambulances. With an estimated startup cost of $3 million for either option, Watson said, the four-ambulance service would cost about $1.2 million annually and the five would cost about $1.4 million.

Watson also projected revenue at $2.4 million from ambulance billing and a $100 annual fee assessed to each of the 16,000 households in unincorporated areas. Watson’s indicated the county could have enough money to pay for the service by the third year after being in the red by $57,000 in the first year and $21,000 in the second.

Neely said the county’s examining its own ambulance system doesn’t raise any concerns for him.

“I appreciate the fact that they’re going through their due diligence,” Neely said. “I think they’ll find the numbers we provided are very real and it’s not profitable.”

Patrick Carr, justice of the peace for District 12, said the county needs to pursue a long-term solution to avoid repeating drawn-out discussions over the last few years.

“We’ve got our agreements with the provider for 2014, now the question is can we offer a service at a reasonable cost ourselves or do we continue working with the cities?” Carr said. “Before we make a decision on that we’ve got to see what our costs are, what the benefits to the county are and what the benefits to the cities are? We’ve got to look at all the options.”