Ambulance district gets budget approved

WALLACE — During a special meeting on Thursday night the Shoshone Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) unanimously approved the proposed budget of the recently formed Shoshone County Ambulance Service District (SCASD).

The meeting included the approval of the district’s forms that will allow it the power to levy funds from the public as well as ratifying the list of contracts that are needed for the district to function.

BOCC Chairman Mike Fitzgerald opened the meeting by reflecting on the process that went into creating the district and how much effort and time has been dedicated to it since its approval.

“When I look at today I want to think of it as a celebratory moment,” Fitzgerald said. “It was about three years ago when we first met and began looking at how prices were getting out of hand and we wanted to begin looking at restructuring to get the most for our money. That was a heck of a group and I thought we came up with a pretty good answer. Over the last year and a half there has been some outstanding work by some outstanding people.”

Fitzgerald credited the local fire chiefs Mark Aamodt (Shoshone County Fire District No. 2) and Aaron Cagle (Shoshone County Fire District No. 1) for their efforts and their insight, as well as their willingness to work together to make sure the newly formed district could function under one umbrella.

The SCASD board met earlier in the week to approve what they were planning to submit to the BOCC for final approval.

Originally, it was thought that the district would cost taxpayers somewhere around $130,000 per year to operate the district, but that number wasn’t close to accurate as it was discovered operations cost far more than what was originally expected.

$424,000 is what the SCASD will be attempting to levy from the residents of Shoshone County, pending approval from the state.

“A year and half, two years ago, the goal was to create this district without raising the costs to the taxpayers, it was one of the goals that failed,” Fitzgerald said. “As we went through the last three years, we found that the EMS Corp. was grossly behind and needed additional funding. The BOCC stepped up and provided that additional funding and they will now be operating on the correct amount that is needed for what they are doing. It especially became apparent in the last year what some of the real experiences were. Staffing under-pays, vehicle expenses, things like that.”

As mentioned, the new district is taking the place of the former Shoshone County Emergency Medical Services Corporation, which had functioned as an intermediary between the existing fire districts and other involved entities.

The new SCASD will fill the void formerly occupied by the aforementioned EMS Corp. as it pertains to handling the county’s EMS programs and contracts, fiscal accountability, as well as the operations and oversight of the district.

In its former form, the bulk of local ambulance services were carried out through a series of service agreements between Shoshone County, the EMS Corp, Shoshone County Fire District No. 1, Shoshone County Fire District No. 2 and neighboring counties.

Outside the previously discussed responsibilities of the SCASD, level of service, personnel and personnel types, licensures and recruitment are not changing under the new district.

The SCASD was officially created on June 29, 2020, with a functioning board by the end of July of that year.

The BOCC will retain authority over the district, but allows them to govern themselves as much as possible, which includes their ability to levy public funds.