Indirect negotiations between Vicksburg and Warren County officials over ambulance service outside city limits stayed that way Wednesday as the city board agreed to talk about the topic but did not specify when or offer financial specifics.

Both aldermen joined Mayor Laurence Leyens in approving a motion to negotiate an interlocal agreement to provide ambulance service outside the corporate limits once the current agreement expires Sept. 30.

Short of an agreement on new terms, Leyens said, the interlocal contract would be allowed to lapse.

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said a new proposal from the city was being prepared, but work had not begun on putting a contract together.

In previous board meetings, city officials have expressed a desire to rewrite the contract based on what they see as added cost to the city of making ambulance runs to county residents.

In it, the county, under state law, has paid the city $350,000 each fiscal year to provide life support and rescue services to county residents. The county does not pay for trips made by ambulance units for such calls as broken limbs, basic transfers, categorized as &#8220basic life support.”

The city has estimated the average cost per run for all categories is $290.88, with the county owing the city $338,022.47 for fiscal year 2005-06.

On the county side, the comptroller’s office has no record of any invoices from the city since June 2005, before the current fiscal year.

After the meeting, Leyens said a meeting with county supervisors this week is unlikely and possible revamps to the contract language were still in play.

Using a flat rate instead of calculating cost per run was the most viable option, he said, one that would &#8220benefit both sides,” but did not specify what that flat rate would be.

&#8220If they take it, great. If they don’t, then we can just contract out for it,” Leyens said, adding the county may still be billed for any &#8220overage” of the $350,000 ceiling.

County officials have disputed the total of their payments exceeding that figure, expressing a desire to examine how the city calculates the total number of ambulance runs and how they are recorded by the E-911 Dispatch Center.

According to emergency dispatch, vehicle accidents with four individuals injured are recorded as a single run, whereas the city-run fire department records it as four, as per the number of people.

The fire department-based ambulance and rescue service here, created as an early city-county venture in 1967, is one of the few remaining public services anywhere. Most areas are served by private firms.

Initially, the deal was that the city provided personnel, fuel, maintenance and supplies and the county purchased ambulances as needed. Since then, a variety of funding formulas have been devised, often after fractious negotiations.

City-county agreements also once existed for municipal fire responses to county locations, but nearly 20 years ago, county volunteer fire departments began forming. Today, municipal fire crews only respond to school calls outside the city limits and, by private contract, to River Region Medical Center.