By Kacie Svoboda
At the April 21 annual board meeting of the Hill City Ambulance District, the board approved a $50,000 tax limitation opt out that will go on the 2015 tax roll and be available in 2016. The opt out will be for five years.
This opt out will replace the district’s previous one, which expired in 2013. These funds will go toward paying employees and operational expenses. The Hill City Ambulance Service is comprised of 13 paid staff members and is overseen by medical director Dr. Lisa Brown and a five-person board of directors. The district owns two ambulances and is ready for action all day, every day.
“We need it,” ambulance district treasurer Kay Ballinger explained. “We need to have employees 24/7 and that money is what we need to pay them appropriately.”
Ballinger explains that while the Hill City Fire Department can get by with volunteers, the ambulance has employees to ensure their EMTs are up to the task of performing life-saving medical procedures.
Another expense came from the completion of a mandated state training, which increased the ambulance employees’ skills.
This is the district’s only source of funding for the ambulance service. Presently, the district is paying its employees with funds set aside for a new ambulance but, according to Ballinger, it’s simply not going to be enough.
This opt out may be referred to a public vote if a petition is signed by at least 5 percent of the district’s registered voters.