Highfill Officials Praise Ambulance Service

County Voters Face Choice On Fee

HIGHFILL — A crowd of about 35 people at a rural ambulance meeting at Highfill City Hall on Thursday heard the city’s mayor and fire chief praise the service provided by Bentonville.

Highfill Mayor Stacy Digby said an accident in Highfill last year was serious enough four people needed to be taken to the hospital. In such situations, having ambulance service available is essential, he said. Highfill contracts with Bentonville to provide ambulance service at $18,000 a year, said Fire Chief Gene Holland.

At A Glance

Town Hall Meetings

Several of Benton County’s justices of the peace are planning town hall meetings to offer information plans to make ambulance service available in rural areas.

• Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for District 9, will meet with interested parties at 9 a.m. Jan. 18 at the Centerton’s Mayor’s Coffee at the Centerton Community Center and at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Centerton Fire Department.

• Patrick Carr, justice of the peace for District 12, and Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for district 13, will host a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Siloam Springs Community Building.

• Steve Curry, justice of the peace for District 11, has a meeting set for 6 p.m. Jan 24 at the Billy V. Hall Senior Center in Gravette.

• Brent Meyers, justice of the peace for District 14, has a meeting set from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 25 in the city council room at Lowell City Hall.

• Pat Adams, justice of the peace for District 6, has a meeting set for 6 p.m. Jan. 28 in the community room at the Pea Ridge Fire Department.

• Mike McKenzie, justice of the peace for District 1, will host a meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Beaver Lake Fire Department’s Beaver Shores office.

Source: Staff Report

“That’s basically to reimburse Bentonville for a service we can’t provide ourselves,” Digby said.

Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for District 9, and Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, sponsored the event and briefed the crowd on the debate over rural ambulance service and the county’s plan to pay for it.

Anglin, who lives near Vaughn in unincorporated Benton County, is in her first term on the Quorum Court. She said she wasn’t aware of the question of how to pay for rural ambulance service until she took office in January 2013. After participating in meetings and learning about the issues involves, she said the justices of the peace adopted the ordinance to create an emergency medical services district and a fee.

“We felt it was important for the people of the rural areas to have ambulance service,” she said.

Moore said state law requires cities that provide ambulance service reach a “mutually agreeable contract” with counties, other cities, and other entities to pay for the service.

“In a nutshell, if the unincorporated areas don’t have a contract with the cities, they have no obligation to provide ambulance service beyond their borders,” Moore said, adding three of the seven cities that now provide service — Rogers, Siloam Springs and Springdale — have already indicated they will end that service if there is no agreement to reimburse them for their costs. Other cities have indicated they will wait until the outcome of the Feb. 11 vote is in and the county decides on its course of action, Moore said.

Most of the discussion Thursday centered around the need to pay the cities, with some attendees arguing rural residents pay city sales taxes when they shop there and that should be considered. Others questioned the cost and some said they have agreements with air ambulance services for less cost.

Digby said the air ambulance service is limited in several ways. He said weather can prevent the helicopters from flying and they are limited to single patients when they are in service. County Judge Bob Clinard also said air ambulance services are dispatched according to availability so having a contract with one service doesn’t mean that service will be called.

Holland said ground ambulances are more likely to reach patients in bad weather.

“We’ve never been declined an ambulance because of weather,” Holland said.

Benton County has agreed to pay seven municipal fire departments providing rural ambulance service about $942,000 for 2014. The money would ensure the service is available, but not pay the cost of patient care. All of the cities — Bella Vista, Bentonville, Gravette, Pea Ridge, Rogers, Springdale and Siloam Springs — have said they will bill private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare and the patients for the cost of any calls where a patient is transported by ambulance.

The Quorum Court in September created an emergency medical services district with an $85 annual fee to be levied on households in the district. The fee would pay the county’s cost to make ambulance service available. The Quorum Court created the district and fee for households outside cities and not in the Northeast Benton County Emergency Medical Service District. The fee would be included on property tax statements.

Theresa Pockrus helped organize a successful petition drive to force a vote on the fee and district. The election is set for Feb. 11.

The county has $236,000 in the 2014 budget to pay for ambulance service through the end of March. The justices of the peace Tuesday considered and rejected a resolution saying if the plan is rejected the county will not pay for ambulance service beyond March. At the same meeting the justices of the peace voted down a proposed ordinance appropriating $706,339 from the general fund to pay for ambulance service through the end of 2014.

“The Quorum Court has funded ambulance service through the end of March,” Moore said. “After March, I don’t know.”

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