Ambulance District Seeks Benton County Money

BENTONVILLE -- Officials of the ambulance service that covers northeast Benton County are concerned they may be left out when the county begins to pay for rural ambulance service through a recently approved property tax.

Kara Funk, president of the board for the Northeast Benton County Emergency Medical Services District, and Fire Chief Rob Taylor, who heads up the NEBCO Fire Department that operates the ambulance service, discussed the money question at a recent meeting of the county's Budget Committee. Several justices of the peace asked Funk and Taylor for more detailed information on NEBCO's operation. They said they will gather the requested information and return for another round of talks.

Residents of the NEBCO district pay a $100 annual fee for the ambulance service in addition to the property tax county residents approved at the Nov. 4 general election, Taylor said. The county's 0.2-mill tax is meant to raise some of the money needed to pay ambulance services providing coverage outside the seven larger cities that have municipal ambulance service. The county and those cities have agreed on contracts calling for the county to pay about $942,000 this year. Cost estimates for 2015 are about $1.1 million.

NEBCO provides ambulance service to people other than district residents and Taylor thinks using service boundary lines works against his department. Cities are reimbursed for the calls they make outside their city limits, but not for calls inside those cities.

"NEBCO covers a large percentage of Beaver Lake for EMS," he said. "So why wouldn't that be considered? I think a lot of people were under the impression that if they travel to Beaver Lake this millage is meant to be sure an ambulance is available if they need one. If we're covering that area why wouldn't we be included in the funding?"

The question of service outside district or city boundaries is a sticking point for some justices of the peace. Kurt Moore of District 13 said he wants to help NEBCO, but he doesn't think the millage is the proper way to do so.

"I'm really torn on this," Moore said. "I really want to help them as much as possible because we want to encourage other areas to set up their own EMS districts. But NEBCO is supposed to be self-supporting and self-sustaining. The millage that was voted in is to ensure you have ambulance service if you're traveling outside your city or EMS district. That works for the folks in the NEBCO district if they're traveling elsewhere in the county. There's no real legal reason why we have to give them anything else and I don't see the legal basis on which we can give them some part of the millage."

Keven Harrison of District 5 said he thinks NEBCO's responsibilities for calls to the Beaver Lake area should carry some weight. During the voter education effort preceding the vote on the millage Harrison often invoked travelling to Beaver Lake as an example of why city residents should agree to pay a countywide millage for rural ambulance service.

"They make runs to the lake, so does Rogers," Harrison said. "I think they're entitled to part of it. I think we need to look at it and consider their request based on its merits. I'm not against providing them with funding. We definitely don't want to leave them out if they're providing the same type of service the cities are."

Tom Allen of District 4 said the county has to consider its responsibilities to all of the taxpayers who approved and are now paying the EMS millage. Allen said the amount of tax revenue generated from property within the NEBCO district would be about $21,000, so the tax money and the $145,000 the district has requested for 2015 aren't equivalent. The NEBCO request should be part of th normal budget process and the Budget Committee will consider it when Taylor and Funk have collected the information the justices of the peace have asked for, Allen said.

"They're not the same as the cities," Allen said. "They're only serving within their district."