ONLY ONE QUESTION TUES., NOV. 2ND – County Ambulance District Seeking 35¢ Tax Levy on November 2nd Ballot by Kris Richards

The Washington County Ambulance District Board officially approved a referendum for vote on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021 that seeks the support of County Voters for a temporary 35¢ per $100 assessed valuation assessment.

The question is the lone item on the ballot for a Tuesday, Nov. 2nd election in Washington County.

The balloting is a County-wide issue and will be voted on at all precincts.

The W.C.A.D. Board adopted the resolution to certify to election on Thursday, August 12th, 2021.

Justin Duncan, District Administrator, said the past two years have made the need for the Ambulance District to grow and expand services for the County very apparent.

Duncan said, “Our goal is to be able to serve anyone in the County in ten minutes. That’s a big area and we are talking about miles to cover. One thing as a service we want to provide is coverage. We’ve got houses in Potosi, Old Mines and Belgrade. We’re looking, with the County’s support, to establish houses on Highway 185 and Highway 8 West.”

The tax proposition is a temporary one, with a ‘sunset clause’ that will take the tax off at the end of ten years. The 35¢ per $100 would cost an average household in Washington County approximately $21 a year on real estate and from $5 to $6 dollars on personal property.

This proposition is for growth and expansion. Duncan said, “We go to ‘status zero’ (no ambulances in the County) nearly every day. We strive to get patients where they want to go. Sometimes, we can do that with the call volume that we’ve got now.”

The County Ambulance District hasn’t gone to the Voters with a question since 2006.

Administrator Duncan noted, “The District got good support in 2006. We’ve grown and expanded since then - new houses, equipment updates and more - and we were at 30 employees then answer just over 3500 calls for the year. Now, we’ve got over 50 employees, counting both full and part time, and we’re on pace to answer over 6000 calls this year.”

“We are a lot more than an ambulance district. We’re doing house calls for diabetics, heart disease and Covid cases. We’ve been swabbing and testing for Covid through a grant program, no money from insurance,” said Duncan.

The district is working with the County Health Department to provide continued Covid vaccinations and flu shots.

“The district headquarters is more than just an ambulance station. We have administration, business office, an education and training center, host County emergency operations, community meetings as well as district vehicle maintenance. We also store a lot of the emergency management supplies for the County,” said Duncan. He also noted that the headquarters ‘houses’ three ambulance crews and the on-duty supervisor at all times.

The levy will only be used for capital investments and growth for the County’s Ambulance District.

Duncan said, “As an example, we are at 8 ambulances and we need to have 12 running. A lot of people don’t realize the number of calls and trips we make. We will make over 1000 hospital transfers. We make runs to St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Cape Girardeau and to Illinois.”

He went on, “We’ve got over 100,000 miles on most of our ambulances in the fleet with over 200,000 on three of them. The District does have a new ambulance just going in to service and one that is still under 100,000. The average for an ambulance is about 35,000 miles a year. Not only do we need to update the ambulance fleet but also the equipment that is used daily. We’ve been getting the most out of what we have but the age on the equipment is adding up.”

The Covid-19 Pandemic brought a lot of attention to the Ambulance District as well as the County’s health care and support system as a whole. The main house garage was the perfect layout for the vaccination clinics that were very successful. The County provided the ability to vaccinate literally thousands of people in just days.

Another fact that Duncan is pleased to share, “Everyone one of our paramedics is critical care certified. We stay up on our education and are proud to be associated with Mineral Area College as a training and education facility. We’ve got some great people and we want to be able to give the best tools to work with, someone’s life always depends on it.”

The Washington County Ambulance District has set up an informational website with a large amount of facts and figures about the District. The goals and future for the County’s Ambulance District are presented for the public. Visit the information site at www.WCADpropAmbulance.com and learn more.

Absentee ballots are now available and voting began on Tuesday, Sept. 21st, 2021.

The District and staff are proud to serve their Washington County residents, and with the support of the Voters they look forward to continuing to grow, learn and serve for the future.