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Deadline nigh for ambulance service
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June 10, 2012 |
By Mike Weland
A gauntlet thrown by the Boundary Volunteer
Ambulance Association is set to trigger the end
of BVA at one minute past midnight Thursday
morning if their funding demands aren't met, and
so far, neither side is blinking.
At a meeting May 15 described later as "heated"
by county commission chair Ron Smith, BVA,
through attorney Brian Wood, all but demanded
that commissioners dramatically increase funding
the county pays the association each year so that BVA
can live up to its contractual obligations, or
they will stop providing ambulance services and let the
county figure out how to provide its citizens a
service mandated by Idaho Code.
Unsatisfied with the "best" offer commissioners
said they could make, BVA issued a 30-day
ultimatum, saying essentially that if their
demands weren't met, they would void a contract
that was last renewed in 1998.
For years, Boundary County has paid BVA, a 401c
non-profit, $8,000 per year, and while the
association has grumbled in the past that the
amount wasn't enough, they never went through
the county budgeting process to have the amount
increased.
"We've been telling them to do it for a few
years now," said commissioner Walt Kirby. "They
haven't done it."
Earlier this year, the association asked that a
county-wide ambulance taxing district be formed,
and that BVA be chosen to continue providing
ambulance service to the county as they've done
since the association was formed 47 years ago.
Despite considerable public protest, commissioners did
form an ambulance taxing district. Though
they expressed their appreciation for the work
done by BVA volunteer EMTs over the years, they
did not name BVA or any other entity as the county ambulance service
provider, but instead chose to take advantage of
a clause in state code that gives them
time to accept proposals from interested service
providers and make an informed decision.
Even with passage of a district, no funding can
be dispersed until being included in the
county's fy2013 budget, even had BVA been
selected and a levy amount set.
By forming a taxing district, state law allows
the county to budget up to a maximum of .04-percent of
the county's assessed property value for funding
ambulance services. Without the district, the
cap is .02-percent. Commissioners offered to
increase this years' funding to BVA to $40,000, an
increase of $32,000, to give the county time to
figure out the myriad details involved, set a
levy amount award a contract and budget for
ambulance service.
That is the maximum, Smith said, that the
county could squeeze out of this year's budget.
Wood disagreed, saying he wanted the full
.02-percent allowed by law, or $175,000, but he
said BVA would settle for $80,000, retroactive
to January, 2012, and payable by December 31,
and another $80,000 for next year.
Once the ambulance taxing district is formed,
Wood said, BVA would require the full
.04-percent allowed under a seven year contract
if the county wants to retain its services.
In addition, he said the county needs to buy some land
or deed BVA land the county already owns and build
Boundary Volunteer Ambulance a new building.
As to any oversight on how the county taxpayers'
money would be used, Wood said that BVA is a
non-profit corporation having nothing to do with
county commissioners; as a private contractor
providing a service, he said, the county was, in effect,
making a decision on whether or not to hire BVA at a
rate fair to both; if BVA didn't agree with the
amount offered, he said, it was their
prerogative to stop providing the service.
Commissioners were just as adamant that they
wouldn't be coerced ... the offer is on the
table and that's as good as it's going to get
until they have time to look at all angles to
ensure that taxpayers' money is being used
wisely for providing county ambulance service in next year's budget.
"He's asking commissioners to sell the farm,"
Smith said. "He's saying we should declare an
emergency so we can pay them what they want when
there is no emergency, or that we should sell
county property to give them what they want. He
says that maybe we should sell some of the
sheriff's vehicles ... now that ain't going to happen."
The hard-line stance of BVA surprised many,
including a number of volunteer BVA EMTs, who
told commissioners at subsequent meetings that
they were volunteers here to provide a service
the county needs, and that they intended to
continue to serve, with BVA or without.
South Boundary Fire Chief Tony Rohrwasser, who
has worked with BVA for years and who has many
volunteer firefighters who also volunteer as EMTs
with Boundary Volunteer Ambulance, told commissioners that he has lost
respect for the organization, though not the
volunteer EMTs, and said he would
do whatever he could to ensure that ambulance
service remains in the community, even if BVA as
a corporation doesn't. He said several current
EMTs agree to do the same.
Commissioner Dan Dinning said this whole
situation is the result of a lack of
communication that could have easily been
avoided had issues been addressed rationally
before they rose to crisis proportions.
But now, with less than a week before the BVA deadline, this
unintentional game of chicken may well end in a
train wreck nobody involved wants to see. |
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