Ambulance district board approves FY 2020 budget

The Weiser Ambulance District’s fiscal year 2020 budget of $1.09 million represents a modest increase of about $92,000 over the FY 2019 budget of $1 million.
 The three Washington County commissioners serve as the governing board for the ambulance district. The board approved the FY 2020 spending plan for the ambulance district following a public hearing on Monday.
 The two primary revenue sources for the ambulance district are fees for service and property taxes. The FY 2020 budget anticipates $869,500 in revenue from sources other than property taxes, mostly fees for service. The district will end the current fiscal year with $9,500 to carry over to FY 2020.
 The ambulance district anticipates collecting $223,127 in taxes in FY 2020. Property taxes are the second largest source of revenue and account for about 20 percent of the budget. The district receives some funds from sales tax distribution from the state, about $4,500 in foregone taxes and property tax replacement.
 The biggest expense in the ambulance district budget in FY 2020 are salary and wages for employees. The total cost of salary and wages for employees for FY 2020 is pegged at $680,900, an increase of about $35,000 over the FY 2019 approved amount of $645,000.
 In recent years, the ambulance district found it needed to increase wages and offer some benefits to part-time employees to be competitive with other regional agencies and retain employees. The ambulance district relies on part-time employees to cover the many shifts, some of whom work as medics for other agencies, officials said.
 Acting supervisor Corey Patocka said the ambulance district currently has three full-time paramedics and one part-time paramedic on staff and three part-time EMTs. The ambulance district, which responds to more than 1,000 calls for service annually, also covers shifts with six or seven EMTs and three or four drivers. The ambulance district must staff two ambulances 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
 In addition to personnel costs, the ambulance district’s FY 2020 budget contains an expense line item totaling $386,727, which is up from the expense figure of $255,000 for FY 2019.
 The district pays for health insurance and professional services, such as payroll and billing. There are vehicle maintenance costs and supplies that come out the expense fund, along with legal services, continuing education for staff and rent payments on a county-owned building used by personnel.
 The ambulance district also set aside funds in the FY 2020 budget to purchase a new ambulance in the future. The district currently has three ambulances. The newest ambulance is two years old and another is three years old. The third ambulance is a remount with 240,000 miles on it and a box that dates to the 1990s.
 “We’re at the point where we need to upgrade it,” Patocka said.
 The industry standard is to replace ambulances every four to five years. The district has been able to replace two ambulances in the past five years with grants, but it doesn’t look like a grant for another ambulance is possible this year.
 The district has fared well in recent years in the number of grants received. The district received a $20,000 grant for automatic CPR devices last year and other equipment. Another $30,000 in grants equipped the ambulances with power cots and power load devices to assist in getting patients into the ambulances.
 Over the past couple of years, the district has been able to buy two new ambulances with grants that totaled $250,000 from the state.