News

Ill. Community Explores Ways to Subsidize Ambulance Service

Kevin Barlow

11/11/2011

Nov. 11--CLINTON -- There may be several options for subsidizing an ambulance service for the Clinton area, and Clinton Mayor Carolyn Peters says she is looking into all of them.

Last month, the Dr. John Warner Hospital board voted to end emergency medical transportation after Dec. 31, 2012, a service hospital Administrator Earl Sheehy said costs about $500,000 per year to operate.

Peters said she is compiling information about tax levies and has already started making some presentations.

"I won't allow us to get to the end of next year and not have an ambulance service," Peters said. "But, we also have to figure out a way to pay for it."

Approximately 15,000 people live in the 460-square-mile Clinton Ambulance Service area, which takes in Clinton, Wapella, Waynesville, Midland City, Hallsville, Lane, Weldon, Kenney and DeWitt. The Clinton Nuclear Plant and Clinton Lake are also in the coverage area.

"We have to look at the municipalities and fire protection districts for funding," Peters said. "We have to look at all available options."

Clinton Ambulance Service Manager Terrance Hubbard and Sheehy are assisting Peters.

"Our primary goal right now is education," Hubbard said. "We want people to understand there will be an ambulance service. We also have to identify our options and talk with our residents about what works best with those options we have."

Once officials determine a funding mechanism, a decision about who will operate the service also will be at issue. Peters said the three have visited with officials with the Logan County Paramedic Association, a not-for-profit group formed in 1999 under similar circumstances.

"That might be the answer, but we still have a lot of research to do," Peters said. "We are still early in all of this, but we also know we really don't have time to waste, either."