Tontitown, Elm Springs, Johnson, Washington County Face Paying $800,000 For Ambulance Service In 2016

Washington County officials and those in several, small Northwest Arkansas cities are scrambling to figure out how to pay about $800,000 for ambulance service in 2016, when Springdale plans to discontinue service outside the city.

"I don't know how we are going to afford it," said Harold Douthit, Elm Springs mayor. "I don't think it's fair and equitable the way it is laid on the table right now."

Elm Springs, Tontitown, Johnson and Washington County received cost estimates last month that showed each needs to fork over $160,000 or more to get ambulance service from the Washington County Regional Ambulance Authority-Central EMS by Jan. 1, 2016. Only part of Johnson and the rural, northern portion of the county are involved.

Several government officials said they were surprised by the cost. Officials are scrambling to come up with a solution before Springdale ends its coverage. Springdale officials have planned to stop ambulance service, except for mutual aid responses, since 2013.

How to provide and pay for rural ambulance services also was hotly debated in Benton County for several years. Residents voted Nov. 4 to increase the property millage to pay for the service.

Now some Washington County cities face a similar problem, mayors said.

Under the authority's recommended plan, cities and the county would pay $797,864 total for two ambulances, two stations, and an additional 12-hour crew ready to start January 2016, according to a document provided by Becky Stewart, chief of the ambulance authority. The ongoing price tag for the ambulance service goes to $573,408, starting in 2016, according to meeting minutes.

The cost estimate has Tontitown paying $265,451 -- the highest among all the service areas. Washington County would pay $202,336, and Johnson would pay $168,540. Elm Springs would pay the least at $161,537.

"What we have come up with is an estimated cost of providing ambulance service to the new area and population," Stewart said. "This is probably going to take a lot of discussion and collaboration to come up with how we will make it work."

A second option drops the start-up cost to $556,629 total with one ambulance purchased this year and one next year, records show.

Tontitown has no money set aside in the 2015 budget for ambulance service. Any amount the city has to pay will mean budget cuts, said Mayor Paul Colvin.

"I've been working feverishly to find out what are our options and what can we do," Colvin said.

Chris Keeney, Johnson mayor; Mike Irwin, Springdale fire chief; and John Luther, county Department of Emergency Management director, didn't return phone messages Wednesday or Friday.

Douthit said Elm Springs officials will look at all options, including finding cost estimates for hiring a private company. The city needs affordable ambulance service, he said.

Colvin said he hopes some of the costs can be deferred, but he supports a regional approach to ambulance service.

"I think it would be more prudent to try to work together with the other towns around us and do cost sharing to benefit the community as a whole," Colvin said.

Both Colvin and Douthit said they also wonder about the fairness of the cost to join the authority. Neither Tontitown nor Elm Springs is a member yet, mayors said.

Authority members joined when the service first started around 2009, according to the group's website. Members pay $4 per capita based mostly on the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau numbers, Stewart said. That means each city's contribution is not based on call volume, Colvin said.

The authority responded to 15,951 calls for ambulance or wheelchair service in the Fayetteville area, which includes some areas outside the city's limits, in 2013, according to the authority's annual report. The part of the Johnson area already covered by the service had 166 calls for the same time period, authority records show.

The numbers were the most-recent available Friday, Stewart said.

Call volume isn't how ambulance service costs are calculated because areas with more densely populated areas are cheaper to serve than rural areas where fewer people live, Stewart said. An ambulance in a high population city can run 10 times in a day, for example, while an ambulance where fewer people live might make one run every other day, Stewart said. The cost of the ambulance is the same, but the number of calls is fewer.

"It's more expensive, if you will, to put an ambulance in an area where you don't have many calls," Stewart said.

The newly served cities aren't likely to get much help from current authority members, according to December meeting minutes. Fayetteville Fire Chief David Dayringer said, according to the minutes, that "Fayetteville is not inclined to assist in paying for the expanded service area." Most other authority members agreed with Fayetteville, according to the minutes.

Dayringer was on vacation Friday.

The costs released to city officials last month are estimates for adding onto the infrastructure of a service other cities have been contributing to for years, Stewart said. The estimates aren't the final plan for who pays what, she said.

Stewart said options may include grants and financing for the ambulances. Colvin said he hoped some costs could be deferred. Douthit said he hoped the cost estimate goes down.

"This is a back-breaker for people like me -- I'm talking about Elm Springs, Tontitown, Washington County and Johnson," Douthit said. "We're going to try to figure out what's fair."

NW News on 01/04/2015