Ambulances lose money, city continues program

Moses Lake City Council says benefit to community worth it

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council met to discuss the 2007 preliminary city budget Tuesday night.

The council focused on the ambulance fund for the majority of the meeting.

Ambulance operations through the city and Samaritan Hospital began in 2001 and has a crew of 13 firefighters and paramedics, Moses Lake Fire Department Deputy Chief Corbin Moberg said.

Funding is provided by user fees and the general fund, he said.

Then the city began losing money on the service due to competing ambulance services in the area, City Manager Joe Gavinski said. He advised city staff, council and hospital board members have changed since the inception of the program.

"We took about a $100,000 hit," Moberg said.

Gavinski suggested several options for the council to consider. The council chose a monthly fee as the best possible way to keep the service a float. A $4 service fee is proposed to be charged to each individual residence and business once a month, every month. If approved it will be tacked onto utility bills, he said.

The council chose not to cancel the ambulance service for many reasons. Some shared their personal experience with the service.

There are 13 families employed by the service to consider if the program is halted, Council Member James Liebrecht said. The service was recently used for his father-in-law. The ambulance receives approximately 3,000 calls for service per year and it is likely you or someone you know will need to use those services, he added.

Council Member Richard Pearce said although the service can be expensive to the city, he does not want to get rid of it.

"I feel we owe the service to the citizens," he said. "I think our citizens would deem it necessary."

Council Member Dick Deane recalled driving his neighbor to the hospital himself while she was having a heart attack because she did not want to pay the ambulance fee.

The monthly fee can help take away the financial burden some people feel for riding in an ambulance, Moberg said. Sometimes if a person arrives in a personal vehicle it can be too late.