County Commission abandons plans for county-wide ambulance district

The Hill County Commission has decided not to pursue the creation of a county-wide ambulance district in preparation for this year’s ballot, and instead voted today in an ambulance district meeting to create a resolution to place a proposal on the ballot for November’s election to increase the mills levied in the county, excluding the cities of Havre and Hingham, for the ambulance service from 1 mill to 8 mills.

This resolution would state that 6 of those mills would go to the Havre Ambulance Service and 2 would go to the Rudyard Ambulance Service.

Several at the meeting said the decision was not a good long-term solution for the problem.

City of Havre Mayor Tim Solomon and Havre City Finance and Clerk Doug Kaercher have previously said the city has been subsidizing the ambulance service for years because the county, which accounts for 28 percent of ambulance calls, was paying far below that percentage for the service.

They said the county doesn’t have the money to make up for that shortfall and unless funds can be raised via a mill levy, the Havre Ambulance service will have to cut back on services and won’t be able to take calls from outside the city limits.

The Hill County Commission and representatives from the City of Havre had been moving toward creating a county-wide ambulance district, which would involve the creation of an ambulance board which would make decisions about fund allocation between the Havre Ambulance Service and the Rudyard Ambulance Service.

Look for more in Thursday’s edition of the Havre Daily News.