Vote nears to raise ambulance fee $50

GREENWOOD -- The importance of the care that residents of south Sebastian County get from their ambulance service is worth nearly quadrupling the fee they pay each year, officials said Monday.

Greenwood School Superintendent John Ciesla said he and a group of friends met for their daily 5 a.m. basketball game at school one day in 2012 when one of his best friends collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest. They called Emergency Medical Services.

Ciesla said he listened as the sound of the ambulance siren grew louder, and he was grateful the paramedics had all the equipment they needed to save his friend.

"EMS does an outstanding job and they truly save lives, and I'm thankful they were there for my friend," Ciesla said.

Ciesla's story was one of several appeals that mayors, county officials and community leaders made Monday in favor of a proposal to increase the emergency medical services fee for many Sebastian County residents by $50 over two years.

If it passes in an Aug. 9 special election, the increased fee would generate $700,000 more each year and erase the annual deficit between Sebastian County Emergency Medical Services' revenue and its expenses.

Early voting begins Aug. 2 in the Sebastian County Courthouse in Fort Smith and in Greenwood City Hall.

The question before voters is whether to raise the county's 30-year-old $18 ambulance service fee by $25 next year and $25 in 2018 for a total of $68.

The fee is charged on the property tax bills of those who live in the nine cities and rural area of the county outside Fort Smith. Residents of Fort Smith and Barling, both in the county's northwest, are served by Fort Smith's ambulance service and are not assessed the annual fee.

"I think the county judge and EMS should be commended for operating for 30 years with a 1986 fee," said Justice of the Peace Shawn Looper of Huntington, who represents the county's southernmost district on the Quorum Court. "You don't see that anywhere."

Over the past several weeks, officials have made an effort to demonstrate the need for the service fee increase, campaigning before chambers of commerce, senior citizen centers and other organizations around Sebastian County.

Campaign co-Chairman James Burgess said the councils of the nine cities served by the county ambulance service and the Sebastian County Rural Fire Association have passed resolutions endorsing the increase. Some of those mayors attended Monday's briefing.

When the ambulance service fee was instituted in 1986, Quorum Court member Johnny Hobbs of Lavaca said, the ambulance service budget was $188,000. This year, it totals about $1.7 million, he said.

Emergency Medical Services is budgeted to bring in this year $250,000 from the service fee, $525,000 from services billing and $229,646 from a 2 percent share of the countywide sales tax. That leaves $696,586 that must come from the general fund.

Hobbs, a former firefighter and fire chief, said the county has two top-of-the-line, full-time ambulances staffed with paramedics and equipment.

"Nothing can operate on a three-quarter-of-a-million dollar deficit," he said. "That's the reason I'm here to support that. That's the reason I'd like to see the citizens support that."

Voters rejected a proposal in the 2014 general election by a vote of 7,190-3,940 to increase the ambulance service fee to $43. County Judge David Hudson noted that in that election, the Quorum Court was split on its support for the measure. This year, justices of the peace were unanimous in supporting an increase.

If the increase proposal doesn't pass, Hudson said, justices of the peace have discussed contracting out the service to a private company. But he said a private company running the ambulance service could cut staff or reduce services.

In addition to providing ambulances, personnel and equipment, the county puts aside $230,000 a year from a county sales tax to pay for regular ambulance replacement.

"A contractor would be more sensitive to the bottom line," Hudson said. "County government has a heart for EMS. County government has a heart for the people."

State Desk on 07/21/2016

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