Ordinance to Fund Ambulance Service Discussed at Commission Meeting

During the Pocahontas County Commission’s March 18^th meeting, after normal business was concluded, the meeting moved upstairs to the courtroom to hold a meeting with the public regarding the proposed county ordinance which would fund the paid county ambulance service throughout the entire county. About 20 citizens attended the public meeting, which was kicked-off by Commission President John Rebinski.

After pointing out that “volunteering is a thing of the past,” which necessitates the use of paid ambulance crews to provide adequate emergency medical response in the county, Rebinski said they are currently using some funds from the Hotel Occupancy Tax along with some COVID relief funds to pay for the county ambulance service in the northern portion of the county. However, he added that the COVID funds will not be available in the future, and a way must be found to not only funds what is happening in the northern part, but to also expand paid ambulance service to the southern end of the county. Rebinski said the Snowshoe Resort Area District (RAD) is currently paying the Shavers Fork Fire & Rescue to provide ambulance service there, but their ambulance service sometimes also assists other areas of the county.

Rebinski said that in order to have reliable 24-7 ambulance service in the entire county, they will need two paid crews in north county, and two in south county, with each crew – salaries and equipment – costing about 1.2 million dollars. So, to just add one crew to south county while maintaining the existing crew in the north would take about 2.4 million dollars. But that will still not be 24-7 coverage, so they will have to still rely on the volunteer departments, the PMH ambulance (when available) and Shavers Fork to handle calls when there is no county paid crews working.

He explained that he has looked at the Tucker County Emergency Ordinance as an example of a way to fund ambulance service here. Rebinski pointed out that while the Tucker County ordinance adds fees to tourist activities, such as lodging, sports equipment rentals, and tourist-oriented fair and festival admissions, he does not want to aim the fees here exclusively to tourism, but since he estimates that tourists account for about 25% of ambulance calls here, they, along with residents should contribute. His solution is to tax most retail sales in the county a 1% or 2% fee collected similarly to a sales tax. It would not be applied to items, people or organizations who are currently exempt state sales tax, nor to property sales.

There were a number of questions and comments about this from the audience. CVB Director Chelsea Faulknier asked where he obtained the information about the number of tourists using ambulance service. Ken Gaitor, Snowshoe Mountain Resort’s VP of Mountain Operations initially appeared skeptical of Rebinski’s plain, saying that the resort is already at “the point of saturation” with fees charged to guests and any additional fee could cause the resort to lose enough business to other resorts to the point where Snowshoe could eventually close. He said that they are at a “tipping point” and to stop growing in this business is to fail. Rebinski said that was why he wanted to exempt the Snowshoe RAD area from these fees since they are already paying Shavers Fork for ambulance service.

Other people who came in skeptical also made comments, including Steve Dilly, Dave Dragon, & Lisa Cutlip.

Although the crowd seemingly arrived very hostile to Rebinski’s fee, they also came realizing that there is a need to find a way to fund emergency ambulance services here. After Rebinski explained that he wanted their ideas, was willing to create a committee to meet to contribute ideas about an ordinance, and he even passed around a sheet for people to sign-up to be a part of the committee, the audience’s hostile attitudes seemed to moderate into an attitude of cooperation. This was a remarkable positive turn around.

Be sure to listen to Allegheny Mountain Radio for part 2 of this March 18^th commission meeting, where we will talk about the other actions taken during the meeting.