By Jared Barton
Columbus Telegram
COLUMBUS, Neb. — In the culmination of months of discussion between the City of Columbus and Platte County, specifically Columbus and Duncan Rural Fire Districts, the city has set a date of July 1 for the parties involved to make an agreement.
Currently, the City of Columbus provides emergency medical services (EMS) to the Columbus Rural and Duncan Rural fire districts and has for as long as anyone can remember. However, with the area’s population growing in recent years and call volume increasing, the city wants to amend that agreement to better serve its constituents.
Discussion on this topic began in August 2022 according to Columbus Fire Chief Ryan Gray, when he and City Administrator Tara Vasicek met to talk about his department’s frequent calls to areas outside of town for emergency medical services (EMS), something he said many will agree is necessary but state statute does not declare an essential service.
“We recognize the importance EMS has on our community and although not essential by state statute, we all agree that it is truly an essential service,” Gray said.
However, Gray noted, as employees of the City of Columbus, the department is beholden to serving the needs of the city before other areas, which includes allocating resources toward city residents’ needs before other areas.
“As a department of the city, we’re funded by taxes collected from city residents and are responsible to be fiscally responsible with their money,” Gray said. “As we currently sit, citizens are paying to provide services to areas outside of city limits that aren’t paying their share.”
In September 2022, Gray and Vasicek met with Platte County District 3 Supervisor and Board Chairperson Kim Kwapnioski to hear the county’s side of things. On Sept. 29, a work group was established, comprised of city, county and fire district representatives to work out an agreement.
In discussions, Columbus Rural and Duncan Rural made an offer of $300,000 per year on a two-year basis, but the city is looking for an offer in perpetuity, Bulkley said, as it doesn’t do much good to have staff brought on board for a limited time in this area.
Gray went over several items of discussion from the group’s meetings just to clarify where the group reached the $600,000 number. Columbus Fire Department does bill patients and their insurance for services rendered which helps alleviate costs, he said, but this is standard in the industry. This does not cover the costs associated with those services, Gray clarified but helps keep them down. As an example, he gave some figures from the 2022 fiscal year.
“Our total net payments from medical billing was just a little bit over $465,000. This amount doesn’t cover the cost and benefits for five firefighter/paramedics,” Gray said.
The $600,000 cost would allow for the fire department to bring on six new staff members to accommodate the additional usage as Columbus and the surrounding area continues to grow, Gray said. Jojo Dunn, president of the Columbus Firefighters Association, said that the crews currently in employ cannot continue to add to their mental or physical workloads. More runs per firefighter equal more stress, he elaborated. While they do try to decompress, these stresses can build up.
“In our line of work, we see horrible things on an almost daily basis. These traumas day in and day out do have a long-term and sometimes short-term effect on the mental health and well-being of firefighters,” Dunn said.
The city’s initial number of over $1 million would have covered an ambulance and equipment for the new staff. Payroll and benefits are the entirety of this newer number, Gray said, which is why they cannot go lower than that limit.
“We lose money on EMS but understand it’s the cost of doing business, but we cannot afford to spend city taxpayers’ funds to provide service outside the city,” Gray concluded.
James Egr, an attorney out of David City who is a retired firefighter himself, spoke to his views on the arrangement during a meeting of the committee of the whole preceding the city council meeting on June 5. Mostly, he talked about how, according to his research, the cost was too high for the rural districts considering the costs of services in comparable cities. Some, he noted, even have a surplus with the amount they operate on which is less than the proposed sum.
“The City of Hastings, Adams County, their contract is a fixed rate of $62,500 a year and that covers the entire county of Adams,” Egr said. “You’re asking for $600,000 for two districts.”
Egr also referred to Norfolk Rural Fire, North Platte, Grand Island and York’s fire departments, who are also lower annual costs.
In a statement to the Platte County Board of Supervisors during a May 23 meeting, Mayor Jim Bulkley explained the city’s side of things in a prepared statement, which he repeated at the meeting of the Committee of the Whole. In it, he presented the numbers the county would have to add in a levy in order to meet the cost the city was asking but urged that this was just the raw math, not a suggestion.
”...If the county is able to make up the additional $300,000 that is required to continue to provide this life-saving service, it would require a levy of .019 per $100 of valuation for both fire districts,” Bulkley said. “If the county chose to fund the entire service it would require a levy of .038. Either way, Columbus is asking Columbus Rural and Duncan Rural to come up with $600,000 funding.”
Kevin Schuller, president of the Columbus Rural fire board, said during a time for public comments that the offer the fire boards made for that $300,000 figure was fair and that the groups should continue to negotiate and find a middle ground. The tax levy adjustment in some of the rural areas under this total, Schuller said, will be extremely costly for some of the residents.
“We’re taking our levy as it is now basically times three to get the $300,000. To get the $600,000 we’re taking it times six. We’re talking about rural people that are going to be paying more,” Schuller said. “I mean, people in Columbus complain about their taxes, they’ve got a 100 by 100-foot lot, what about the farmers that have got sections?”
In a unanimous vote, it was decided that the city will request the $600,000 per year from Platte County and that they will require a response by July 1. On Oct 1, the city will discontinue service to Columbus and Duncan Rural Fire Districts.
Further Columbus City Council coverage will be featured in the Columbus Telegram at a later date.
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