County ambulance subsidies continued

Sweetwater County subsidies to ambulance providers will continue until the end of June after a vote by the Sweetwater County commissioners last week.

The commissioners hosted a special meeting March 24 to discuss the subsidy. Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo sent a letter to the commissioners prior to the meeting to seek an extension on the county subsidies, which were originally set to end March 21

“Much information has been provided, however we have found that with this information, additional unanswered questions have surfaced,” Kaumo’s letter states. “With such little time to evaluate and digest this information, the city council request the board of county commissioners continue to fund this service through the end of June.”

Commission Chairman Randy Wendling said meetings he’s had with Green River Mayor Pete Rust and City Administrator Reed Clevenger has also resulted in a similar verbal request from Green River.

A motion to extend the payments to June 30 was approved unanimously by the commissioners, with Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld absent from the vote. Commissioner Roy Lloyd said the groups involved in the discussion will continue to work on longterm solutions for funding ambulance services in the county.

In Kaumo’s mind, the ambulance service needs to be tied to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, similar to the setup for Castle Rock Ambulance Service, citing a 2015 study conducted by the county. However, the hospital contends it is unable to take on an ambulance service.

“It’s been said many times, in many ways,” Deb Sutton, the marketing director and public relations officer for MHSC stated in a December 2020 email to the Star.

Smith said during the meeting the study Kaumo cites identified other options outside of MHSC as potential homes for ambulance service.

Funding to the area’s ambulance services, Castle Rock Ambulance Service in Green River and Sweetwater Medics in Rock Springs, came under scrutiny last year when the county commissioners announced they would end subsidies March 21, citing budgetary concerns and started discussions with the cities to find alternate ways of funding the service or including the cities in the funding mix. For Green River, there are difficulties involved in doing that.

“The city is in no better position than the county to take on ambulance funding,” Chris Meats, the finance director for the city said.

Green River’s sales tax revenue, which makes up a majority of its yearly budget, is at levels comparable to its 2002-2003 fiscal year, yet has to contend with 2020 costs which Meats said come with a 2-3% inflationary increase per year from that budget year. Meats said the real solutions to everyone’s funding woes is either the minerals industry makes a comeback in the county and state or the state and county find ways to diversify their economic bases.

While the city anticipates some additional COVID-19-related funding from the state after an announcement that it would receive $1.3 billion as part of federal pandemic relief funds approved by Congress. But, as Clevenger points out, that isn’t a real solution to its funding issues.

“Covid (funding) only helps you once,” Clevenger said.