SALYERSVILLE – The Magoffin County Fiscal Court met in regular session on Tuesday, discussing the status of the ambulance service in the community.
The court approved the following fund transfers from the general fund: $68,000 to the jail fund, and $8,712.50 to the sinking fund.
The fiscal court approved a lease agreement with the TEK Center to use a space at the Lloyd M. Hall Community Center, where the college had rented for some time. Magoffin County Judge/Executive Matthew Wireman said they will lease the space on the same terms as the college, starting in March, as they relocate their headquarters to the county ahead of building a school campus at the industrial park.
Judge Wireman explained they have had an asbestos abatement/removal proposal from a company for the old library building, and they have funding that could be used for that, but he’s also requesting a quote to demolish the building, with the plan to turn that area into parking. They approved the proposal to remove the asbestos pending approval of funding to cover the cost.
The court also discussed ambulance services in the county, explaining that the current contracted company has notified him that they are operating at a deficit, asking for a subsidy of $15,000 to continue to provide two ambulances stationed in the county, but without a subsidy, the county will only have one ambulance stationed here.
Judge Wireman explained that they have decreased taxes, putting $300,000 back in the pockets of Magoffin Countians, but with costs increasing across the board, revisiting those rates may be an option.
He said he’s talked to other county judges who run their own ambulance services and they lose money, and he’s talked to some who contract it out and subsidize those services.
“We’ve been very fortunate because we haven’t had to subsidize our ambulance services and we haven’t had to run it as a county,” Judge Wireman said.
He said he is still meeting with other ambulance services, other counties and how they’re providing those services and looking for options, as well as working with the county attorney, as well as the Department of Local Government, to look at avenues of generating revenue for the ambulance service, either as subsidy costs or by the county operating it.
“Know that we do have an ambulance in the county,” Judge Wireman said. “It is here. It is making runs. We have mutual aid agreements, and we have had to use those in the past. We live in an area that is geographically hard to provide a lot of services. We’re not like Lexington, Louisville and northern Kentucky, where people generally live in higher concentration. We’re spread out geographically, we know it takes 25 to 30 minutes to get to the extremities of the county when we have one here. We’re not unaware of that and it’s the price we pay to live here, but we have to do our best to provide services.”
He said there has been no indication that Patriot EMS is about to pull out of the county, but the county is looking at all options to provide adequate services for the community.
The court also approved a contract with the state for a grant for extending the water lines in the southern end of the county. He said they are finished with the environmental studies and he hopes to be able to start bidding out those projects in the spring.
The fiscal court will need to have a special-called meeting in the next couple weeks, but that date has not been scheduled at this time.
