PEA RIDGE — County residents complained in turn Tuesday of being “held hostage,” “threatened” and “double taxed” by the plan to pay cities for rural ambulance service.

“It kind of feels like terrorism,” Fayrene Jones said at one point in the exchange.

Pat Adams, justice of the peace for District 6, hosted a meeting at the Pea Ridge Fire Department, which drew more than 80 people. Tuesday’s gathering was the seventh organized by justices of the peace to offer information on the proposed Emergency Medical Services District and the $85 household annual fee the Quorum Court plans to use to pay for ambulance service rural residents.

The Quorum Court in September created the district for households outside cities and not in the Northeast Benton County Emergency Medical Service District. The fee would pay the cost to make ambulance service available and would be included on property tax statements.

Residents at all of the meetings have insisted paying city sales taxes should earn them some measure of service.

“If a city uses sales tax to fund ambulance service I’m paying for part of it and they should provide me with service,” Gary France said Tuesday.

Adams said cities don’t track who pays sales tax by their place of residence and cited a state law letting the cities decide what their costs are. Adams said since the cities provide the service, county residents must decide whether to pay their price or face not having ambulance service.

“The cities don’t differentiate between city and county residents on sales tax,” Adams said. “The cities have the law. We have no choice but to adhere to what they want or do without.”

Theresa Pockrus, an organzer of a petition to force a vote on the issue, said the fee posed a threat to less affluent residents since it's being placed on property tax bills.

“The fee is going on your property tax bill,” she said. “You cannot pay the rest of your taxes without paying the fee. If you don’t pay the fee and you don’t pay your taxes, you will lose your house.”

Adams said the Quorum Court considered and rejected options that included raising taxes or cutting services.

“Nobody wants to raise taxes,” he said. “You don’t cut one necessary service to fund another necessary service. You’ll be getting sub-standard service both ways.”

Adams said the county explored seeking a private company to provide the service, finding no interest from the companies they contacted. He said the justices of the peace also looked at establishing an ambulance service. He said the district and fee were the best solution in the county’s current situation, although he said if costs from the cities rise too much, a county service might be more feasible.

“It was the best of the three of four evils we had to choose from,” he said.

Benton County has been working with the seven cities that provide ambulance service in the county since 2010, seeking a formal arrangement to pay for the service. The 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 care.