A competent, well-equipped ambulance crew and safe county roads are items that are expected by county residents, but budget figures for 2003 show that maintaining those necessities is expensive.
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A competent, well-equipped ambulance crew and safe county roads are items that are expected by county residents, but budget figures for 2003 show that maintaining those necessities is expensive.
As county commissioners continue their work on the 2003 budget, they have the task of sifting through requests and setting priorities for how county revenue will be spent. While both the ambulance service and public roads are areas that must be funded and in fact, have the largest budgets of all county departments, commissioners are promising few extras this year.
With the Grundy County Ambulance Service coming off its best collection year ever, it is also coming off a year where actual expenditures exceeded budgeted expenditures by $23,126.53, a difference that can be explained by an expenditure of $30,000 for legal fees involving a lawsuit filed by former ambulance employee Todd Grooms. While the judge in the breach of contract case ruled in favor of the county, the legal fees still had to be absorbed.
Ambulance Director Carolyn Fink said billing revenues increased from about $160,000 in 2001 to about $300,000 in 2002, with $310,000 in billing revenues budgeted for 2003. Much of that increase can be attributed to the fact that department employees are doing the collecting now rather than having a private company doing the billing and collecting. Revenues from a one-half cent sales tax are expected to bring in about $425,000 in 2003, down from $440,000 projected for 2002, an amount that wasn?t quite reached.
Included in the budget is a complete new ambulance rather than mounting the ?box? on a new cab and chassis as has been done in the past. Ms. Fink said that by purchasing a completely new ambulance, the department will be able to keep it longer and do remounts for the next several years. In addition, it is hoped that over the next six years or so, the department can acquire three identical ambulances, which will allow everyone to be familiar with all of the ambulances, increasing efficiency. A new ambulance is estimated to cost about $100,000.
A staffing change is also being sought for inclusion in the 2003 budget. Currently, the department has 13 full-time staff members and 10 part-time employees. Two advanced life support crews are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, working 48 hours on and having four days off. In addition, a third crew is available for call-in. In the new budget, Ms. Fink has requested that the third crew be on duty for eight hours each day, Monday through Friday to help with an increased number of calls, mostly transfers.
?We want to be sure that we always have one ambulance and crew available in the county and this would allow for that,? said Ms. Fink. ?In the case of emergencies, where all ambulances could not respond in the county, we have mutual aid agreements with the departments around us.?
Adding the eight-hour crew would mean funding two new full-time positions.
Presiding Commissioner Kenny Roberts said that all budget requests are being looked at very seriously for elimination in the budget and said a decision on whether or not to fund the purchase of a new ambulance and the two new full-time positions will be made after looking at the overall budget picture for 2003.
As for the Road and Bridge department, Supervisor Bill Hunter said he has budgeted for $466,468 in CART (County Aid Road Trust) fund revenue, which is determined by the total number of miles of road in the county. Of that amount, $333,432 would come from gas tax funds, while another $82,516 is expected to come from motor vehicle sales tax revenues and another $50,520 will come from motor vehicle fees. In addition, the road and bridge department receives about $40,000 in property tax revenues plus federal money for bridge replacement projects, with the county chipping in 20 percent of those costs.
Roberts said no new equipment will be funded for the department this year, however, crews will work on one federal 80/20 bridge replacement project (the R-6 Bridge) and will continue working on the bridges that are part of a Community Development Block Grant. The county cannot apply for any new CDBG funds until that grant is closed out. Roberts said the crew will do what it can do with the amount of funds available.
?We?ve cut their budget to the bone,? he said.
Both Ms. Fink and Hunter have requested a 2 percent salary increase for their employees, who are on the county salary schedule. Commissioners, who have indicated they are unsure that any salary increases will be funded, have scheduled a meeting with county employees on Monday to discuss their plans for the 2003 budget. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 10 a.m., Tuesday.