“Its likely the furthest we can take it out is the 27/28 business year, all things being,” Filler said.
By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Tucker County Ambulance Authority Board President Dennis Filler presented a bleak future to the Board at their regular meeting September 17th. In his comments, Filler presented a future in which Tucker County may not have an Ambulance service in 2027/2028 if additional funding sources cannot be found. “The real take away on this thing is that the Board has to reduce our services because we are just not going to have enough labor dollars this year,” Filler said. “We didn’t have the carry over we had in years prior,” Filler said. “We have scaled back..”
A budget summary analysis provided to the Board and the Parsons Advocate by Filler outlined that in Fiscal Year 2025/2026, the Ambulance Authority faces a budget shortfall of $93,714.12. The shortfall, the documents show stems from expenses of $1,009,266.02 with an estimated working capital of only $915,551.90. The expenses shown on the documents are for expenses such as labor, contract expenses, vehicle expenses, medical supplies, insurances, office materials, communications, maintenance and other necessary expenses. “The other thing is that, we tried to make it very clear, is that it is unlikely that we will financially sustain or present scaled back services in the next fiscal year,” Filler said. “And transition to one station operation is likely to happen by the beginning of the fiscal year July 1, 2025.”
The future of the Ambulance Authority is uncertain, according to Filler. Even under a one station model, Filler said without additional funding, the Ambulance Authority would likely fold sometime in the 2027/2028 fiscal year. The documents provided contain a spreadsheet with future projection models that show a projected $44,076.44 shortfall for the 2027/2028 budget year under the one station model. “The bottom line is, on that model, even if we scale back to one station operations, its likely the furthest we can take it out is the 27/28 business year, all things being,” Filler said. “I mean that is the company totally being unable to provide services.”
“Prices are not going down,” Filler said. “It shows the urgency that folks, we need to do something different.”
Under the current plan, the Ambulance Authority will reduce service to one station while addition funding sources are sought.