Council silent on Ambulance subsidy

    The Washington City Council listened to a few audience members speak about the county ambulance services, but the council did not discuss the issue at its meeting Wednesday night. The $8,250 semiannual subsidy the ambulance requests of the city was an agenda item on the council?s Jan. 20 meeting and was tabled at that time, meaning the council took no action on it. At Wednesday?s meeting, none of the five council members present made a motion for the ambulance agenda item to be untabled, so no vote was taken on the matter and no discussion was held.

    Councilman Mike Roth said that the county is in the process of negotiating a contract with ambulance services, and that he wants to wait until the county releases a request for proposal before acting on the motion.

    Wednesday was not the first time the ambulance subsidy appeared on the council?s agenda but was never discussed. At the Feb. 3 council meeting, Councilman Fred Stark motioned to untable the ambulance subsidy item but the motion died for lack of a second. During the council?s budget workshop on Feb. 10, City Administrator Dave Plyman recommended that the city eliminate its $16,500 annual subsidy to ambulance services. 

    A few area residents went to the council meeting to express their support for ambulance services. Rick Conrad, an emergency medical technician who works for the ambulance, said there is another town in the county eager to house the county ambulance services.

    ?I know Riverside would love to have Washington County Ambulance moved up there,? said Conrad.

    Conrad said that he wondered what would happen to the response time for emergencies in Washington if the ambulance had to come from Riverside. He also told the council that if the city of Washington lost its ambulance service, it would need to create a first responder unit. 

    ?If you had to start a first responder group in this city it would cost you $50,000 to $60,000, which you would need if you didn?t have an ambulance service for transports to the hospital and to the city,? said Conrad. ?What I want to know is, ?What price do you put on a human life???

    Dixie Young, the office manager for ambulance services, addressed the council and told them that much of the city?s subsidy is eaten up by taxes.

    ?The $16,500 that you give us in a year ? we pay half of that back in taxes, so you?re really not giving us a whole lot,? said Young.

    Young said that if the ambulance service moved out of the city of Washington, she might not be able to continue working for the ambulance.

    ?I would not want to move out of the city because I can?t drive. I have no peripheral vision and if it?s out in the county, I would not be able to get to work,? said Young. ?It?s easy to get around the city on a bicycle for the things that we need for the ambulance now.?

    Doctor Robin Plattenberger, who practices medicine at the Washington County Medical Clinic, said that she and many others at the clinic support the ambulance services and don?t want the city to eliminate its subsidy.

For the full article, see our Feb. 18 print edition.