One of the major complaints that the Peoples Party hierarchy, and a few other citizens, have had over the past couple of years, is the creation of the paid ambulance staff in Peoria Heights. My experiences have shown that the vast majority of citizens have been strongly in favor of the new service; but, as usual in the Heights, virtually everything is potentially a political issue.
Just a quick overview: we were faced with two choices a few years back, in regards to our Ambulance Service. One- we create a paid staff, as the days of the all-volunteer service had pretty much reached its conclusion several years before I even took office. The reasons for that are many, but mostly the demographics and dynamics of Peoria Heights, along with many other communities, had changed so much over the past generation that it was virtually impossible to be able to depend solely on an all-volunteer staff. Or, Two- we do away with Ambulance Service altogether, and contract with AMT.
I hate to ask you to go back and read the previous postings regarding the Ambulance Service, but there's so much information about it that is what the blog-reader will pretty much have to do. What I want to address here are the costs of the paid ambulance service, as that has been called into question several times by Lynn Brown and others.
First, it will be a bit difficult to make true apples-to-apples comparisons. The AMT service would be free (or so I've been told), however it does not appear that a single dedicated AMT vehicle would be only in the Heights, let alone two. What does that mean? Well, if a loved one of yours has a heart attack while in Peoria Heights, and you call 9-1-1, the odds are much, much greater that the ALS Ambulance squad from the Village will be at that location within minutes; and unless the AMT vehicle is in the neighborhood, it could be many more minutes before an AMT vehicle would arrive. In the business of life-saving, of course, minutes can make all the difference. Lynn Brown and other detractors have never seemed to address this situation when complaining about the paid ambulance service. It's easy to sling political arrows, but when it all becomes a real situation, one might feel a bit different if the person needing the ambulance is a loved one.
Comparisons to the volunteer service are pretty much of no value. The all-volunteer service will not work as well as we require, and had not worked well for over a decade. However, costs will be used as a contrast, just because.
For fiscal year 2010-2011, the personnel costs of the paid ambulance service came to $235,367.00. Non-personnel costs for the ambulance service amounted to $97,859.00, which is pretty much in line to what it would have cost to have the all-volunteer service, if that had been able to be retained.
So, the "difference" maker in costs, and the major problem with the Peoples Party hierarchy would appear to be the $235,367.00 in personnel costs. This is for ALL of the personnel costs, including the forced overtime.
The revenues for the ambulance service in fiscal year 2009-2010 came to $154,799.00. However, this figure does not include the outstanding billings for the same fiscal year that had not been collected yet, which was around $80,000.00. Some of the billings included in the $154,799.00 would have included billings from fiscal year 2008-2009, but those would have been minor, as the full time paid ambulance service was not in full swing yet at that time. My best guess would be around $35,000.00; so deducting that from $154,799.00, then adding the $80,000.00 of non-received billings, we come to an estimated revenue total of $199,799.00.
Subtracting the $199,799.00 from the $237,367.00 personnel costs, we then come to a total estimated cost of $37,568.00 for the PERSONNEL costs of having a paid ambulance service. Now, if you want to champion switching over to AMT, then you can add on the non-personnel costs of having a paid ambulance service, which would be $97,859.00, for a grand total of $135,427.00. However, you can add this on ONLY if you advocate switching over to AMT, and doing away with our own ambulance service. Lynn Brown has made mention many times of switching to AMT; but, it should be noted, that the Earl Carter regime had 8 years to do exactly that, and never did.
Now, the Ambulance Service revenues for fiscal year 2010-2011 have come to $146,577.88, up to and including December 17, 2010; with around $120,000.00 in outstanding billings. With well over a quarter to go in the fiscal year, our actual collected revenues are not far under the total collected revenues for the entire fiscal year of last year. At this pace, the Ambulance Service should be collecting around $225,000.00, not including the outstanding billings, which will certainly still be hovering around that $100,000.00 figure. ACTUAL total billings for fiscal year 2010-2011 will be at or near $325,000.00. I have never said that I ever expect the Ambulance Service to be a money-maker; it's a SERVICE for our citizens. But, as the billings increase, we edge closer to maybe having a break-even year now and then.
How is it a SERVICE to our citizens?
1) Timeliness: Already touched on that. Mere minutes for our paid ALS ambulance crew to arrive at the scene in the Heights; AMT could be much further away at any time. We are here in the Village 24/7. It honestly could be a matter of life and death.
2) Costs: If you don't have insurance to cover the service, you would find that the costs are roughly HALF of what AMT charges. We're talking several hundred dollars difference here.
3) Maintain our own Services: As I've discussed before, whenever possible, it is best for a municipality to maintain its own services. What happens if AMT is no longer in business in ten years, and the new ambulance service decides to start charging the Heights for this service? We would no longer have any choice but to pay what they would require... our ambulances would be long gone. CONTROL is important.
Police protection is not free. Road and water maintenance are not free. 24/7 ALS emergency service is not free. Yet, we've added this service without charging an additional nickel on anyone's property tax bills. This is an important, possibly life-saving service, that the vast majority of the residents in the Heights recognize the value in. I'll take on the Peoples Party hierarchy any day of the week in a debate on this one.
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