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Carbon County News Article - June 1 |
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By Alastair Baker The Red Lodge City Council took a united front to support the proposed Red Lodge/Roberts Ambulance District at its meeting last week. The ballots for the July 13 Red Lodge/Roberts Ambulance District mail ballot election were mailed out on Monday, June 28. The meeting was heated at times with concerned citizens as well as emergency personnel telling the Council that the public is confused by what will happen if the proposal fails. Many people are under the false assumption that the present high-level of service will carry on regardless, and be supported by the City’s general fund as has happened since the 1980s. Mayor Brian Roat came under frequent attack for inferring to the public that there will be an ambulance service regardless whether the ballot passes or not. Volunteer Linda Barbee, an EMT-Basic for more than 10 years, adamantly asked Roat to clarify the situation to the public. “People are saying to me, ‘the Mayor says there is going to be an ambulance service any way,’” said Barbee. “The Council’s intention is important, people should know what that is, and what to expect.” “It will be there, but at a big reduced level,” said Roat. “I can't believe a community will not be able to support an ambulance service when we've gone from the old days of using an Oldsmobile station wagon and taking care of people…historically we've done it because we are a community who cares about everyone,” said Roat. The Ambulance District will create a new funding system separate from the City, with no additional city funding to help support it. It will be financed by a yearly fee of $69 paid by residential lots/parcels that contain a dwelling unit and on developed commercial properties. Most importantly, response priority will be given to incidents within the city limits of Red Lodge. It is also felt that with the service struggling to maintain a decent roster of EMT volunteers because of high stress levels and time commitments, the service will lose more volunteers if the proposal fails. Tom Kuntz, Red Lodge fire Chief, listed further challenges from losing two of the ALS providers: losing the present 24/7 paramedic coverage; potential loss of ability to staff a second ambulance, and loss of income to the ambulance service. “Currently 65 percent of our income comes from ALS calls and 42 percent comes from ALS transfers between the hospital and Billings. There would be a reduction in level of care, no advanced level assessment, no advanced pediatric care, no pain medication, no life saving cardiac medications. We’d lose the ability to support and train the folks who do all the work, our volunteers,” said Kuntz. “If you set up volunteers for success and provide them with an atmosphere where they can feel they are successful they continue to give time. If you set them up for failure, for stress, you set them up to fail and they will generally not volunteer anymore.” According to Roat, the ambulance service costs the city $200,000 from the general fund, sacrificing the budgets of other departments in the city which have to support it. This is something the City would like to see an end to as well as the old issue of the city subsidizing county residents. “The City has tried at least since the 1980’s to get the County to contribute adequate funding to the Ambulance, but the City is still subsidizing county residents. With the current financial picture, it cannot continue,” said council member Wanda Kennicott. Kennicott referenced several Carbon County News articles from the late 1980s dealing with the ambulance service and its financial issues. She quoted an article from Aug. 18, 1988 entitled “Non-emergency service for non-city residents ends Sept. 1” in which then council member Dixie McCampbell observed, “The city does not have the money to subsidize county health care problems. We had to scrap a health insurance plan for our own employees. The city is doing all it can in assuming responsibility for the needs of city residents.” “We keep doing it, we can’t cave in,” Kennicott said. “If the District does not pass, the Council would need to approve an Ambulance Response Policy to set priorities and limitations for ambulance operations in the City. This could be adopted by resolution. If the vote for ambulance service does not pass, the City should not force ambulance service upon the county residents. Service to the county could terminate on Sept. 1. City residents will take their chances while traveling in the county up to the next ambulance district. We have all gotten used to this service, but the figures don’t add up for the city to continue to support it alone. The majority vote wins. The Commissioners can always contract for that service to cover their territory if requested by their constituents. We cannot get bogged down in the “what ifs”; the facts will have spoken.” Council member Aaron Kampfe added “The council and mayor need to explain to the voters what the ramifications are if the ambulance district doesn’t pass. We have a preliminary budget in place and it contains significant cuts in the ambulance. We knew it was coming two years ago. In anticipation of that, we, as a council, voted to move forward with an ambulance district to spread the costs among those who use the service- both city residents and those in the surrounding areas of the county. It is time for us to move forward as a council and go to the public and say listen, if you want this level of service you have to pay for it and, if you don't want to pay for it, you're going to get this (lower) level of service.” Jeff Schmidt, general manager of the Red Lodge Mountain Resort, believed that if there were cuts in the ambulance service, then skiers who get injured and weren’t cared for, probably wouldn’t come back, affecting the entire winter economy of the area. Jason Priest, council member, felt the council wasn’t presenting a credible picture of what is going to happen. “If we cut back the service, we will have problems. We have an aging population in the state and in the town, and people expect a certain level of service.” Said Priest, “The problem I have is I don't want to see the tax payers of Red Lodge continue paying for it, so I'm not going to vote any more to have ambulance service outside the City of Red Lodge.” Priest explained that the city cannot send an ambulance to Roberts at the expense of the city residents. “we haven't communicated this to people. We've said the opposite, ‘don't worry we'll figure it out.’” Glory Mahan, council member, suggested the council members need to express their support for the district wherever they go in public. The ballots were mailed out on Monday, June 28, 2010 to all active voters within the proposed district. Voters whose status is inactive, must go into the Elections Office located at 17 W. 11th in Red Lodge to request a ballot. People that own property within the proposed area, but are registered in another Montana County can request a ballot by filling out a form. Once the form is received and verified, a ballot will be sent. Any questions, please call 446-1220. |