Benton County Closer to Ambulance Solution
By: Tyler Thomason
Updated: March 15, 2013
"How we're going to fund it...How much is the service going to cost...What about insurance?" says Benton County judge Bob Clinard, referring to ambulance service in unincorporated parts of the county.
Questions that seem to ring louder than sirens, the county continues to seek a source of funding for the service.
"We've made great progress over the last three or four months," Clinard says.
He actually conducted his own research just last month, sending letters to all seven city providers the county currently uses.
"We had asked them to give us their estimates of their costs," Clinard says.
Because if the county keeps using them, Clinard projects the price tag to be more than a million dollars annually.
"Coming up with a fair and equitable reimbursement for them to service these people," Clinard says.
One of those providers is Rogers.
Fire chief Tom Jenkins says its unit is designed to cover nearly 40 square miles.
However, when unincorporated areas are included, it can stretch their squad by an additional 60 miles.
"That's taxing on city resources," Jenkins says.
"We have to be very careful to not over-extend ourselves."
Clinard says fundraising options at this point include trimming county budget, initiating a per-household fee or taxing unincorporated residents.
"It's a very complicated system, but we're going to work it out," Clinard adds.
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