County ambulance contract in limbo
Board sends contract back to committee for final negotiations
Taylor County appears likely to go with an ambulance option that will provide full-time coverage in Rib Lake and Gilman and have the Medford station covered by inter-facility transport crews during the day and on-call ambulance workers at night.
The plan was one of six options that Aspirus has given to the county for a new contract to replace the previous partnership. The plan carries a price tag of $1,904,433.
According to county finance director Larry Brandl this proposal which includes increasing staffing from 12.6 full time equivalent (FTE) to 16.8 FTE, would have an estimated tax impact of $90.30 on a home with an equalized value of $100,000. By comparison, the county’s current budget calls for paying about $692,000 to Aspirus, which represents 45% of the ambulance service budget for the county.
On Wednesday, the county board met for more than three hours, mostly behind closed doors including at one point calling sheriff Larry Woebbeking in to give information. They were in open session briefly to ask questions of Bob Kirkley, who is regional director of the ambulance service with Aspirus.
While the Taylor County Board See COUNTY on page 4 came out of their second closed session of the day Wednesday afternoon without making a formal decision on which ambulance option to choose, the county’s budget writing committee, which met immediately following the county board session approved a motion to put $1,904,433 into the ambulance line item of the budget. The budget needed committee approval on Wednesday in order to meet the time frame needed to publish it for public review prior to the county board budget session on Oct. 25.
Officially, the board referred the contract negotiations back to the law enforcement and emergency services committee to meet with Aspirus representatives and make a final recommendation for approval at the October county board session.
The county and Aspirus have been long-time partners in the ambulance service with the county subsidizing the service. Spiraling labor costs, due primarily to a loss of volunteers willing to take oncall shifts have raised concerns which came to a head in recent months over lack of coverage particularly in more rural areas of the county. Aspirus has had to bring in full time staff from other areas in order to cover shifts, paying a steep premium in order to do so.
Prior to going into the first closed session, board member Mike Bub raised objections saying he felt it should be discussed in open session.
“This is important for the citizens of Taylor County,” Bub said noting that to him the county is not negotiating or discussing any personnel matters. He noted that other meetings when it was being talked about at law enforcement were in open session.
County Clerk Andria Farrand said there were some discussions that had been in closed session.
“There are things that everybody doesn’t know,” said board member Chuck Zenner in support of going into closed session, items which he said will affect their ability to bargain with Aspirus.
Bub was the sole no vote to going into closed session.
Following more than an hour of closed door discussion, board members then reopened the meeting to ask Kirkley questions about the various options.
Top among those questions was if Aspirus could potentially staff the option calling for full time coverage in Rib Lake, Gilman and Medford. This option would require having 24.2 FTE and has a projected price tag of about $2.2 million.
“It is a possibility, I don’t know how fast it would happen,” Kirkley said.
Kirkley said they could fill those spots, noting that it might take some time to do so and still require paying a premium and incentive pay like they are currently doing in order to get the positions filled. The major change is that if the county chose that option, the county would have a flat fee and it would be up to Aspirus to absorb the change.
Board members also questioned about having first responders or firefighters from areas being able to be a third person to drive an ambulance in case there were shortages in staff.
According to Kirkley in order to meet the regulations they would have to be on the ambulance service rolls in order to make sure they met all the background checks and mandatory trainings required by state and federal regulations. Kirkley also said that they could not be paid unless they were employees of Aspirus.
Zenner said he felt this is something they should be able to work out ahead of time to have, for example, firefighters in the communities on the list as being able to drive the ambulances. It was noted that while Aspirus operates the system, the ambulances are owned by Taylor County.
Board members also raised questions related to the COVID-era requirements that had been imposed at the federal level through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This mandate had required masking and vaccination (or an approved waiver) for ambulance crews. Those requirements ended with the federal government’s official ending of the pandemic.
Board member Scott Mildbrand also asked about option 6 which would put a full time crew in Medford but only have first responders in Rib Lake and Gilman to provide coverage. This proposal had a price of $1.56 million. Issues raised with this plan include that responders are volunteers rather than dedicated to a shift.
Board member Lynn Rosemeyer, who chairs the law enforcement committee, compared it to a volunteer fire department where there may be 40 firefighters but that only 10 of them may be able to respond to a fire.
Board members then went back into closed session to further talk about items and adjourned the meeting immediately upon coming into open session.
