By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Tucker County Commission unanimously passed a resolution approving a Special Emergency Annual Service Fee. The 2% fee is scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2025 on various entertainment throughout the county. The fee is intended to apply to only those who users of certain entertainment services within the county and applies to both residents and visitors alike. Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau read a statement into the record at the Wednesday, November 13th meeting of the Tucker County Commission on the measure. “We all understand the importance of EMS services in our county,” Rosenau said. “It comes with a cost of approximately $1.2 million to run our two EMS stations 24/7 annually.”
The fee, called the Special Emergency Annual Service Fee, is scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2025, according to Rosenau. “If adopted, effective January first, 2025, the Tucker County Commission would impose and collect a special service fee known as the Special Emergency Annual Service Fee from users of Emergency Ambulance Services within Tucker County,” Rosenau said.
The fee, according to Rosenau, is designed to include both Tucker County citizens and visitors who use selected entertainment. “Which under the proposed ordinance would include citizens of and visitors to Tucker County who engage in various amusements, entertainment and/or recreational activities in Tucker County,” Rosenau said.
The fee is collected by both indoor and outdoor activities, according to Rosenau. Some of the activities listed by Rosenau included camping, motorsports, skiing, and watersports. “This Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee will be a 2% fee collected by any business or individual located within Tucker County that engages in one or more of the following types of amusement, entertainment and/or recreational activities. The activities include, but not limited to the following, all recreational and amusement activities including the rental of equipment and use of said activities whether indoor or outdoor such as short term rentals, such as hotel, motel, cabin, condominium, Airbnb, Vrbo or private rentals, RV or tent camping, boat, paddleboat, kayak, canoe, floating tube rentals, ATV, UTV, motorcycle, bicycle rentals, bus excursions, charters, downhill ski equipment, clothing rental, ski lift fees, cross country ski equipment, clothing rental fees, sledding, tubing, ice skating, snowboarding fees, lift tickets, equipment, clothing rentals, scenic chairlift rides, swimming, tennis, pickleball courts and equipment rentals, guided hunting or fishing excursions and clothing equipment rentals, zip lines, rock climbing, paddleboarding, horseback riding, skeet shooting, paintball and other similar outdoor activities and clothing equipment rental for the same, virtual and/or AI gaming fees, put-put golf, golf and golf cart rental fees, any and all admission charges to cover and cover fees including but not limited to music events and/or concerts, comics, music, movies, plays, professional sporting or gaming events, mudbogs, motorcycle, ATV, 4-Wheel Drive racing or riding,” Rosenau said.
The need for the fee, Rosenau said, stems from the high demand from both residents and visitors. According to Rosenau, in 2023, 40% of ambulance calls were attributed to out of county individuals. “In order to provide adequate ambulance service to Tucker County, the ambulance must also be available to handle the demand for ambulance service for non resident visitors to the county,” Rosenau said. “Ambulance service resources need to be sufficient to handle all the demands such that it is not overwhelmed by the combined demand by residents and non residents. Otherwise, services to residents will suffer.”
According to Rosenau, authority for the fee is granted by the State. “Authority for a County Commission to via ordinance and codes collect a Special Emergency Ambulance Fee is provided for in West Virginia Code section 7-15-17,” Rosenau said.
Rosenau said that the statute also did not limit the collection of the fee to county residents alone. “The statute authorizes the Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee, allows the fee to impose upon and collect from users of Emergency Ambulance Services within the county and is not limited to county residents,” Rosenau said. “Therefore, citizens of Tucker County and visitors of Tucker County who engage in amusement, entertainment and/or recreational activities here and whom this ordinance applies, are as statistics show, users of Emergency Ambulance Service within Tucker County making this fee fair for everyone.”
When asked by a member of the audience if the Commission would consider adding all emergency services in the title of the Resolution, Rosenau said the Commission could not due to State Code. According to Rosenau, the only fee able to be collected by State Code was for the Ambulance Service. “We’re following State Code for this and the only thing State Code will allow is money to be collected for is for the Ambulance fee,” Rosenau said. “This is the actual title of the Bill and we have to try to follow State Code for everything.”
Rosenau said that business owners and individuals can apply to the County Commission for an exemption should they feel they are entitled. Requests shall be considered on a case by case basis in a timely manner and additional documentation may be requested, Rosenau said. “If a business owner of individual believes he/she is or should be exempt from collecting this Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee, they can send a formal request in writing to the Tucker County Commission,” Rosenau said. “Upon receipt of said written request, the Tucker County Commission shall, within a reasonable time, cause to be investigated any request for exemption exoneration. The County Commission may ask for documentation to verify the need for exoneration exemption. If good cause for exoneration exemption is found by the County Commission, said Commission shall exempt and shall notify the business owner or individual in writing of its actions.”
Exemptions are only valid for the fiscal year they are requested for, Roseanua said and expire July 1. “An exoneration exemption shall only be valid for the fiscal year in which it is requested,” Rosenau said. “Upon July 1, all temporary provision exemptions are null and void.”
Rosenau said that the Commission hopes to be able to eventually reallocate existing county ambulance funding into the fire departments once the fee is up and running. “What will happen is, the funding that we have allocated, if there is enough funds generated by this fee, the money that we have allocated out of our funds that goes to EMS, if this fee is successful, can be reallocated to the fire companies,” Rosenau said.
Rosenau said that the Commission had worked with the State and the County over the years in attempts to find a solution to fund EMS in the County with little success over the years. It is only with the passage of the new State bill that Tucker County has found a solution, Rosenau said. “We’ve worked on this since ’91,” Rosenau said.
General Manager for Timberline Tom Price spoke to the Commission on the issue. “I think EMS and Fire all of those, we’ve been a good friend and a good community partner and we speak about it as tourism, its really hard to think about how its going to affect our small business,” Price said. “It is going to be catastrophic.”
Price said that his customers won’t be the ones paying the 2% and that his company would be the ones who would have to foot the bill for the new fee. “You’d think that the 2% is going to go onto the customer,” Price said. “But they’re not going to eat it. Not on our end. We’re going to eat that 2% as a small business because we are very specific about how we price our products and we haven’t made a profit yet. It is going to be catastrophic. I don’t know about the other small businesses.”
Price said his company pays EMS during busy times and has a good relationship with the service. “We do our part by paying for our EMS services during our busy times and we’ve done that the last few years,” Price said. “And that has been a really great relationship.”
Price requested that he be able to speak with the Commissioners outside the meeting on the issue. Price also said that should the measure pass, it would force his business to stop all growth on the mountain. “Its going to be really, really bad for our business,” Price said. “I would love to find time to talk to you guys outside of here and really show you how much it is going to affect us. I don’t know if it will sway you anyway in the future. I would really like to have time to talk to you as a small business owner, as one of the biggest employer, as one of the biggest renovations that has happened in this county. We’re at $25million we’ve put into the county. Not to mention all the growth that has happened around us. And this will completely shut it down. It will completely shut it down. You will see no more growth out of us.”
Rosenau invited Price to set up an appointment to speak with the Commission on the issue. “Call, set up an appointment and we would love to have a discussion,” Rosenau said.
Tucker County Commissioner Fred Davis said that in his talks in the community, he has been told that many have said that Tucker County is the most affordable place for recreation around and saw little problem with paying a little more. “I’m the one that talks to everyone out…and I ask people, I ask them a question, would you be into paying a little extra cor the EMS fee if we put a dollar – this was when we were going for a dollar lift ticket and all that – we paid more than that anywhere else,” Davis said. “They tell me, that we’re one of the lowest areas that does vacation places. We’re still the cheapest around. So, I don’t see seriously where, its not going to cost you if you put that 2% sales fee on and they get it on their slip.”
Price said that at his business, a lift ticket costs $95 and that the new fee would raise the cost to his customers by nearly $2 a piece. “A lift ticket costs $95,” Price said. “Rounded up it will be an extra two bucks for each of our customers.”
Davis said that the Commission’s job was to look after the well being of the county. Davis also said that if he felt that the fee would in any way harm small businesses in the county, he would not hesitate to vote against the measure. “Our job, we have to look out for our county,” Davis said. “I really do not see people not coming here. They’ll still come to our area. People still say we’re the cheapest place around to come. I swear to you, Tom, if I thought it was hurting your business, anyone’s business, I would say no.”
In a roll call vote, with no dissension, a motion passed to approve the resolution. The fee will come into effect January 1, 2025.
