By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau addressed the need for the fee during a Special Meeting of the Commission December 4th for the implementation of the Commission’s 2% amusement fee. The fee was implemented to fund the Tucker County Ambulance Authority following the announcement that the Authority would no longer be able to fund two ambulances and would likely become insolvent by July 2025 if a change to one crew 24/7 is not put into place.
Rosenau said that over the past 30 years, the County has made numerous attempts at the State and local level to come to a solution for EMS funding, but had met opposition along the way. “There isn’t a person in this room that doesn’t know that funding for EMS has been an issue for 30 years,” Rosenau said. “There’s been public meeting after public meeting on this.”
Rosenau said that the Ambulance Authority Board attended several meetings to explain the need for EMS funding over the years and the County has fulfilled the requirements outlined in State code for meeting requirements. “When we tried to get the levy passed, the Ambulance Authority Board came to several meetings,” Rosenau said. “Explained the need for funding for EMS in our County. So we’ve covered that past what State Code said.”
The population of Tucker County as of 2023, according to the US Census Bureau is 6,604. According to the Tucker County Commission, Tucker County routinely hosts an average of a million visitors a year. “We’ve had Timber in our County, we’ve had Coal Mines in our County, now we have Tourism in our County,” Rosenau said. “First they came and cut all the trees. Then we had the coal mines. The people had to work their butts off in unsafe conditions and had to go from what it was to fight for years, people lost their lives to have safe working conditions working in the coal mines. Now we have tourism.”
Rosenau said that Emergency Services were an issue that should be addressed at the State level, but had instead been repeatedly sent to the County level. “Every time we go to Charleston, we have an issue with Tourism at the State Legislature,” Rosenau said. “We all know this is a statewide problem with Emergency Services throughout the State. We all know it. The State should have taken the responsibility upon themselves and not put it back to the counties. But since they have, they shouldn’t fight us for trying to make it better.”
Rosenau said that previous attempts at funding at the State Level were thwarted in the House by the Tourism Committee. “We sent in and Randy Smith tried to get an Amusement Tax passed for Tucker County, well basically the State of West Virginia, a dollar on the tickets,” Rosenau said. “In order for a law to pass in Charleston, I just want to give you a little bit of advice, in order for a law to pass in Charleston, it has to pass the Senate and the House. In order for it to be called to the floor, to be voted on in the House, it has to to do a Committee. The Senate passed the bill, we used a lot of the language it used in what it covered in the fee. It goes to the House, the first Committee that it had to go to, was Tourism. The Chairman of that Committee, and correct me if I’m wrong, I’m telling you the God’s truth, the Chairman of that Committee would not bring it to his Committee to be discussed to be sent to the House to be voted on. So that bill stalled so it wouldn’t even go to the House. That’s the power Tourism has in the State of West Virginia. That’s the Power they have and that’s the obstacles that we’ve had to deal with in trying to get EMS funded.”
Rosenau said that in July of 2025, due to financial restraints and shortfalls, the Ambulance Authority will be forced to reduced service to one ambulance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “In order to keep our County safe, we know we don’t have the funding for ambulance service,” Rosenau said. “24/7, at least two crews. In July of 2025, we will be down to 1 crew 24/7. That’s the reality of everything.”
According to Rosenau, 40% of EMS calls in the County are from out of County residents. “With 40% of the calls being billed outside of the County, the only fair way we can see for everybody to pay the fair amount, is this,” Rosenau said.
Rosenau said that the 2% fee doesn’t include the efforts of the volunteer fire crews in the County that often include accident scene duties and lost hiker recoveries. “When you want to talk the 40% of the bills outside our County, that’s not including, that’s not including, that’s just EMS, the volunteer firemen we have for the accidents along the road that stand out there while we’re sitting at our house drinking a cup of coffee,” Rosenau said. “Guiding traffic so we are safe. So every resident and every guest coming to our County are safe. We don’t talk about the tourists that these firemen are out for three or four days in Blackwater Canyon and trying to carry them out after we get them. This is not even part of that.”
Tucker County Commissioner Fred Davis said that not only visitors will pay under the new fee, but residents, as well. Davis said it is not all about out of state visitors paying, but anyone who uses the amusements and amenities. “Its about life. Its not all about money,” Davis said.
Davis said it is his responsibility as a Commissioner to insure that an Ambulance Service remains in Tucker County and that meant that when he was informed that come June or July the Ambulance Authority may not be able to meet its obligations, the Commission had to take action. “We meet with the Ambulance Authority, we meet with everyone,” Davis said. “When they come to me, as a Commissioner, one of my books says my rule for me is make sure there is an Ambulance Service. When they come to me and said that in June and July they might not have one, that’s on me. We got to do something.”
Long term plans for the Commission and the Ambulance Authority include upgrading the crews to ALS status crews with two full time ambulance crews for the County and increasing wages to be more competitive in the market. “The main thing is we have to have an Ambulance Service, two crews, ALS crews, not BLS crews,” Rosenau said. “What we have now is EMTs because that is all we can afford. Then we can’t even be competitive…competitive wages.”
Rosenau said that the lack of paramedics on crews means that on some calls, Tucker County must rely on the assistance of other Counties. “So we have to if we have somebody with a cardiac arrest, we have to call Randolph County to meet us at the County line or Garret County or Preston County because we don’t have a paramedic,” Rosenau said. “Because we cannot afford the cost of a paramedic.”
Rosenau said that given the financial restraints and the crew upgrades needed, he cannot see how anyone could not understand the need for the fee. “I can’t understand how somebody cannot see the need,” Rosenau said.
Tucker County Commissioner Tim Knotts said the Commission worked long and hard to come up with a fair and equitable solution. Knotts said he felt the fee was the fairest way he knew of to address the issue.
Rosenau said that the County strives to serve both residents and visitors with the services it has equally and in the best way possible. “In Tucker County we serve the guests and the residents the very best we can with what we have,” Rosenau said.
For more on the 2% fee, see our other companion pieces on the positive comments and the negative comments in this issue.
