A showdown on countywide public ambulance response has been avoided with the Warren Board of Supervisors agreeing in principle to pay a $300 per-run fee and pick up a greater share of overall costs starting Oct. 1.

The agreement – which may sharply increase the county outlay in the next budget year – came in a summit, of sorts, on interlocal deals between the county and City of Vicksburg boards.

While friction has been the norm in so-called interlocal dealing for at least 40 years, Wednesday’s meeting may have been the first that had been preceded by working sessions between city and county employees.

&#8220This is the best set of numbers we’ve ever seen,” said District 5 Supervisor Richard George, who has long-maintained that the Vicksburg Fire Department-based ambulance service is worthwhile and essential to county residents but has pointed out city failures in tallying calls, billing the county and collecting from people who use the service.

This year, Mayor Laurence Leyens and South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman had said dispatching city-paid medical and rescue personnel and equipment outside the corporate limits would end Sept. 30 without a satisfactory deal. North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, a former county supervisor, did not sign a letter setting that condition.

&#8220The reason we took such a hard line on this is because we’re losing so much money,” said Leyens. &#8220We could save so much by stopping runs outside the city, but we know that’s not the right thing to do and that’s not what we want to do.”

In addition to the ambulance pact, agreements were made on three other interlocals: tax collection, repossession of property for non-payment of taxes and emergency dispatch funding. All agreed to renew those pacts under current terms, renewing each as is.

The meeting was the first official face-to-face contact between the board on any issue since January. Only District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon was absent.

For this year, the county was to pay a flat $350,000 to provide life support and rescue responses to county residents. The county does not pay for trips made by ambulances for mostly non-emergency calls such as basic transfers of patients from their homes or nursing homes to medical appointments. Those are categorized as &#8220basic life support” and the vast majority are inside the city limits.

The new agreement is not expected to distinguish between types of service, but rather will take all responses into account, divide them into city or county runs and charge the county $300 per run of any type outside of the city limits.

The most recent tallies show about 400 non-city responses per quarter.

The source of the $300 figure is the average loss per run, city Strategic Planner Paul Rogers said. The city keeps five front-line ambulances and five crews on duty around the clock at an average total cost per-run of between $1,200 and $1,300.

About 55 percent of total ambulance expenses were recovered through public and private insurance sources in the last quarter, from May to June. The budget under the current contract calls for about 62 percent of costs to be recouped. No bills are sent to individuals for rescue responses.

&#8220We’d like to get the cost of this handled by the users, not by the tax base,” said Leyens, who has also indicated billed charges may rise.

The total project budget for ambulance and rescue services is $3.2 million. With the deal, about $2 million will be paid by users, about $700,000 by the City of Vicksburg and nearly $500,000 by Warren County.