Your May 10 editorial on funding options for Benton County Ambulance service said, "It seems, to us anyway, that any sales tax increase proposed is likely dead from the get-go. A countywide vote puts city residents in charge of the outcome, and it's difficult to imagine a scenario in which city residents will support new taxation to pay for ambulance service to rural residents."
The problem with this whole rambling opinion is this ambulance service is not just ambulance service for rural residents. Duh. If you are a resident of Rogers or Bentonville and need an ambulance in Logan Community and one is not available, what the heck are you going to do?
This is a countywide issue and must be solved by everyone in the county.
If city residents want to wait 30 minutes for a city ambulance and pay a $2,000 county fee to be picked up in rural Benton County, that will be just hunky-dory.
Al Lemke
Gentry
Where's The EMS Plan?
My family relocated to Rogers in 2012. Since moving here I have followed the Benton County ambulance issue closely, being a retired fire department captain from Indianapolis, Ind. My first thought was the Quorum Court failed the taxpayers they represent. By failing to make a plan to fund this service, they planned to fail (as they did). Now they have taken monies from the road budget, which effects all taxpayer (even those already paying for EMS service) to pay for the few who don't.
If that wasn't lesson enough, County Judge Bob Clinard wants to raise taxes on all taxpayers to fund the service. So again, those of us already paying for EMS get to pay double while those who are not paying now only pay half as much. So in reality, it is double taxation to cover up the inability to take the bull by the horns and find a common-sense solution: Offering a private ambulance service a subsidy or funding rural fire department-based EMS services. The list of options is vast. Another option is taking legislation to state representatives to address the issue through EMS tax districts for those not paying for services.
The bottom line is those currently in office have failed us miserably. I, for one, cannot understand how Judge Clinard won the primary, based on his debacle of handling this fiasco.
I will be looking for those addressing this issue in the general election in the fall and supporting someone willing to make a plan rather than just planning to fail or take the easy way out.
Daniel Reed
Rogers
Commentary on 06/03/2014