BENTONVILLE — Benton County officials voted to support rural ambulance service Thursday, but left open how to pay for the service.
The Finance Committee met just two days after voters rejected the county’s initial funding plan.
What’s Next
Ambulance Money
Benton County officials will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday to discuss rural ambulance service. The justices of the peace will talk about cuts in the 2014 budget to find $706,000 to pay for ambulance service for the remainder of the year. The meeting will be in the Quorum Courtroom at the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.
Source: Staff Report
By a vote of 4-3, the committee voted to move forward with the $942,000 the county agreed to pay the cities providing ambulance service. Justices of the peace Tom Allen of District 4, Michelle Chiocco from District 10, Kurt Moore from District 13 and Barry Moehring from District 15 voted in favor. Justices of the peace Jay Harrison of District 3, Joel Jones of District 7 and Steve Curry of District 11 voted against the measure.
“What we’ve done tonight is to say we fully intend to move forward this year and honor our commitments to the providers,” Allen, chairman of the committee, said as the meeting was drawing to a close.
Several possible cuts in the 2014 budget were suggested, including cutting the Road Department’s asphalt budget and the small equipment budgets of all departments. Brent Meyers, justice of the peace for District 14, suggested across-the-board budget cuts and six days of unpaid furloughs for employees as other possibilities.
Jones said he wanted the county to find a private provider to replace Siloam Springs as an ambulance service provider. He said he will oppose any plan that included Siloam Springs.
“I’m fed up with the way Siloam Springs has treated this body and the judge,” Jones said. “I don’t want to deal with them.”
Moore questioned Jones’ idea of replacing Siloam Springs, at least immediately.
“If we won’t work with Siloam Springs what are we going to do for the rest of 2014?” Moore asked. “Are you going to leave a segment of the county unprotected?”
Jones said he asked Marshal Watson, the county’s emergency services administrator, to work on a request for proposals. Watson said going through the process would take 60 to 90 days on a “very fast” timetable and any provider would likely require a “significantly higher” subsidy.
“Anyone will come in and provide a service for the right price,” Watson said.
The panel agreed to leave the funding question for a later meeting. Moehring said the justices of the peace need more detailed information from staff before trying to make cuts.
“I would hesitate here tonight that we all pull out our protractors, abacuses and calculators to try and figure out what we’re going to cut,” Moehring said. “There are a lot of variables we need to collect.”
The Quorum Court in September created an emergency medical services district with an $85 annual fee to make ambulance service available. The district would have included all of the unincorporated areas except the area served by the Northeast Benton County Fire Department.
The county originally budgeted $950,000 to pay the cities for service for 2014. Siloam Springs, Rogers and Springdale officials have said they will not continue to provide ambulance service without a funding plan.