County’s ambulance services bill tops $400,000|[5/20/06]

Published 12:00 am Monday, May 22, 2006

The first bills the city of Vicksburg has sent to Warren County for ambulance services to those outside city limits since June 2005 show a balance of more than $400,000 – a debt the county still disputes.

On invoices received this week and discussed when supervisors met Friday, the city billed the county for 368 runs outside the city limits for rescue and life support from July 2005 to March 2006, which made up about 31 percent of all ambulance calls for that time.

The total balance of $401,303.15 reflects the last three months of fiscal year 2004-05 when the cost per run was $320.85, higher than the $290.88 negotiated for fiscal year 2005-06.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

An interlocal agreement between the two governing bodies was put squarely on the line last week when the city board decided that the agreement be reworked.

Currently 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.”

County officials’ main point of contention remains with the way the fire department-based service calculates the runs, where the number of injured persons taken to a hospital determines the number of runs.

Reached later Friday, city strategic planner Paul Rogers said the totals are from his office, but referred questions about runs to Vicksburg Fire Chief Keith Rogers, who said he is preparing a recommendation to the city board that will examine ambulance charges.

The method for counting runs is derived from the number of injuries, Rogers said, adding that the categorization of runs was changed in 2002 to adhere to fee schedules set forth by Medicare.

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.

Though Mayor Laurence Leyens has indicated support for privatization, Chief Rogers said the current arrangement can provide better response time than most private firms.

The interlocal agreement will expire at the end of September if it is not renewed or reworked.

In other business discussed by supervisors Friday, county administrator John Smith said revenues from casino gaming were on pace to exceed last year’s mark, but said it was likely to return to levels seen before gaming on the Gulf Coast was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, agreeing with most market analysts.

&#8220It’s starting now to get close to what we normally get,” Smith said, pointing to three Biloxi casinos that have been reopened since December.

Smith referred to figures for May showing the county taking in $258,419.35 in revenue taxes the four casinos in Vicksburg pay to the state, a drop of more than 20 percent from April. Similarly, tax revenue to the city has also dropped steadily since January.

Of the 3.2 percent tax the casinos pay, 10 percent goes for schools, 25 percent for Warren County and 65 percent for the city. A second revenue tax is a .8 percent share of the state’s 8 percent revenue tax. It is split based on population proportions between Vicksburg and Warren County.

In fiscal year 2004-05, the county took in just over $2,292,442.61 in casino gaming revenue. So far in fiscal year 2005-06, the county has taken in $2,088,806.34.

The discussion over gaming funds became especially important when the board discussed 10 sites requested for visits by inspectors with the federal Natural Conservation Resource Service program.

In the 13 years since casinos came to Vicksburg, the county has dipped into its gaming reserves to provide matching funds for the anti-erosion program. But with gaming funds expected to flatten out even more, supervisors revived the issue of funding NRCS projects inside city limits.

District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon, whose district is the only one completely within city limits, favored leaving the list &#8220as is,” while District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, representing the only one completely outside it, said it was an example of &#8220irresponsible management” by the city not to provide matching funds for sites along city roads.

&#8220The city has a responsibility for municipal streets. They have more sources of revenue than we do,” District 5 Supervisor Richard George added.

The discussion led to the board directing county engineer John McKee to request only eight of the 10 be inspected for eligibility, cutting two sites that were inside the city.

Two sites inside the city near Sherman Avenue Elementary were kept on the list because of its proximity to the school.

District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders broke the stalemate on the issue, siding with McDonald and District 5 Supervisor Richard George, but added there was &#8220a basic lack of communication between the city and county on NRCS projects.”

Part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the NRCS initiates such projects when engineers with the USDA determine a threat to public safety due to erosion close to a roadway, with the majority of the erosion needing to come from a single storm event to qualify.

No set distance exists for how close the erosion occurs beside a road to qualify. That aspect is usually left to the discretion of federal inspectors.