Second public ambulance district meeting draws small crowd

The second public meeting regarding the creation of a county-wide ambulance district, hosted by the Hill County Commission and representatives from the City of Havre drew a crowd of two Wednesday evening, but proceeded regardless with answering questions.

Hill County Commissioner Mike Wendland said he wished there was a bigger turnout, but even if only one person came the purpose of the meeting was to inform.

“We had a little bit of a better turnout last night, but of course we had a lot of folks that run the Rudyard ambulance service there with a lot of questions,” he said.

Tracey Jette said she’d heard there was tension between the county and city about how to fund the ambulance service and wanted to see what was going on.

“I’ve heard from different sources that the city and county can’t work together and because of that we’re going to lose our ambulance,” she said.

Wendland said he thought that was a drastic characterization of the situation and that the two entities are working together to make sure the ambulance service doesn’t need to be cut back.

Jette said she was flabbergasted when she learned that ambulance services may not be available in the county anymore, but she was more concerned for her parents than herself.

“I live in the county, my parents live in the city, and if they come visit me in the county and we have an ambulance service that won’t go out into the county, I mean, my parents are 80 years old,” she said.

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon said he understands why she’s so concerned, but ultimately the services will need funding if it’s going to continue operating at it’s current level.

“Our concern is if this doesn’t pass, then there is going to have to be some cutbacks to the service because we can’t maintain it,” Solomon said.

“We don’t want to change that, but if we don’t have the funding something’s got to give,” he added.

Havre City Clerk and Finance Director Doug Kaercher said the service is unsustainable at it’s current level of funding and the creation of a county-wide district along with a tax of 16.33 mills for all county residents would allow the city to stop subsidizing the service and create capital improvement opportunities for both the Havre Ambulance Service and the Rudyard Ambulance Services.

He said the establishment of the district also would allow the service to rescind the out-of-city fee charged on ambulance calls out to the county.

Kaercher said the service and coverage areas won’t change and the proposed district is primarily a funding mechanism for what they already have.

Jette asked what the tax would look like.

Kaercher said the tax would equate to about $22.04 for a $100,000 home, or $44.08 for a $200,000 home.

Wendland added that agricultural land is calculated differently.

That value can be found by looking at the property’s last tax statement, finding the taxable value, multiplying it by the number of mills — 16.33 — and dividing by 1,000.

Jette said she knows people’s financial situations are different and for some a tax like this might be a bit steep, but it’s worth it for a well-funded ambulance service.

“I mean 66 bucks a year, that’s nothing honestly,” she said, “… I’ve got no problem paying my share.”

Jette said she hopes the county and city can continue to work together to make sure the ambulance services continue at their current level

“We’re all in this together so anyway we can work together I think we should,” she said.

Wendland said the next step is to draft the language needed to create a resolution for the commission to vote on in order to get the proposal on the ballot next fall. This would need to be done by the beginning of next month.

“The clerk and recorder said August 1st, so we’ve got a little bit of wiggle room, but not a lot,” he said.

Solomon said the city and county are still open to suggestions if people have them, but Kaercher stressed that taking suggestions into consideration may be increasingly difficult because of their timeframe.