Commission and city discuss the creation of county-wide ambulance district

At a Hill County Commission meeting with representatives from the Havre Ambulance Service and Rudyard Rural Ambulance Service as well as Havre Mayor Tim Solomon and Havre Finance Clerk Doug Kaercher, the discussion turned to the idea that a county-wide ambulance district be created in order to fund both services.

The creation of such a district would require the creation of a board and would theoretically result in about $21.40 per $100,000 of a property’s market value, Kaercher said, though he cautioned that these were estimates on his part and more precise numbers could be provided once more concrete decisions were and further research was done.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said if the ambulance service is going to get funded properly a tax increase of some kind would be necessary regardless of how it was handled.

“The end result, there is going to be a tax increase, no question about that,” Peterson said.

At the meeting it was agreed upon that the Rudyard Rural Ambulance Service would handle calls in Precinct 20 west of Kremlin, with the Havre Ambulance service covering the rest of the area, which is more or less what was already in practice.

McLean originally suggested that Rudyard could become its own distinct district to avoid having the residents of Rudyard’s service area double taxed.

But when the prospect of a county-wide district was brought to the table, Peterson said, having two distinct districts could place Rudyard in a dangerous position if volunteers couldn’t be found for the service in the coming years.

“Quite frankly, you look around right now and getting volunteers for any service, be it fire or be it ambulance, it’s dropping,” Peterson said, “… I think we want to look at how we are going to fund this service down the road.”

Havre Fire Chief Mel Paulson said creating one county-wide district would make it easier to address such a problem in the future.

Paulson said this issue is a case of “six of one, half-dozen of another.”

“Whether something happens in 15 or 20 years it will be the same conversation, at least it could be inside of a district,” he said.

Paulson said he’s spoken briefly with the fire chiefs of Red Lodge and Valley County about their experience with ambulance districts.

“The little amount of research I’ve done with Chief Lindroth and Chief Kuntz is that their districts have been really successful,” he said.

McLean also said a county-wide district has the advantage of having more direct control over where funds can be allocated, especially for Rudyard’s service in the event that they needed financial support.

There was still some question among those at the meeting as to whether a county-wide district would be equitable to those served by the Rudyard service, and it was suggested that public meetings be conducted as soon as possible to get a feeling for where the residents of the area stood on the issue.

“One of the biggest questions they’re gonna ask is, if we join in as a whole, are we going to be treated fairly,” Peterson said, “… And we’ve got to be able to answer that question.”

He asked the representatives from the Rudyard Rural Ambulance Service, Denise and Lowell Strissel, to let them know if there was any disagreement about the prospect of the county-wide district from the people in their ambulance service so it could be addressed.

Denise Strissel said one thing they would need is the line between the service areas codified in writing.

Kaercher said the county-wide district would be a funding mechanism and boundary lines and operational data like that would not be affected by it.

McLean said the decision carries great urgency given that a solid proposal of what to do would need to be ready by Aug 2, at the absolute latest, to get it on the ballot in this year’s general election.

She said this is especially true depending on how complicated an annexation of Rudyard into the larger ambulance district would be.

“If it’s a complicated process then we better go county-wide now,” she said.

McLean said the commission would try to get an answer on that from Hill County Attorney Karen Alley.