Riley County Commissioners Ron Wells, left, Marvin Rodriguez and Ben Wilson. (Staff photo by Brady Bauman)
Riley County commissioners decided Monday morning to terminate ambulance services to Pottawatomie County effective June 1, unless a new agreement can be made for services.
Both Riley and Pottawatomie commissions decided to do their own billing for ambulance services after Via Christi informed both governments in April 2017 that it would be substantially hiking fees for administrative services.
Since, Riley County has been billing Pottawatomie County nearly $10,000 per month since November for calls made from Pottawatomie County, including the Blue Township area, which is within Manhattan city limits, but is in Pottawatomie County. Riley County says no payments from Pottawatomie County have been made.
“The county commissioners wanted to have an agreement that Riley County constituents would no longer subsidize ambulance services to Pottawatomie County,” Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo said., “Riley County does have legal responsibility for those ambulance services in Riley County, as Pottawatomie County does have in that county even though the City of Manhattan is in both counties.”
Vargo said they thought they had a verbal agreement between the two counties when Riley County sent Pottawatomie County detailed information on where the charges are coming from. Since it was acknowledged that there was no written agreement, Vargo added that Riley County Counselor Clancy Holeman has been working with Pottawatomie County Counselor John Watt to get a memorandum of understanding available. Riley County has since sent a draft including the formula they use to calculate the expenditures.
“We told Pottawatomie County we expected them to pay what the actual cost was and that Riley County was not trying to make a profit off ambulance services,” Vargo said. “The Riley County taxpayers and commissioners did not want to continue to subsidize ambulance services to Pottawatomie County.”
Riley County Commission Chairman Marvin Rodriguez said the billings are not unreasonable.
“We have gone out of our to give them as much information as we can and I feel like we’ve been slighted,” he said. “It’s our charges and our costs. Our costs are higher because we pay our people higher, have higher benefits and larger ambulances.”
Riley County Commissioner Ben Wilson was next to make comments to which he said the bills they are sending to Pottawatomie County are too low.
“I feel like it’s cheating our taxpayers for them to have to pay more than Pottawatomie County taxpayers for the service they receive,” he said. “If anything I think that the amount we’re charging should be higher.”
Vargo said when ambulances services were still ran by Via Christi, Riley County paid for all ambulance services in Manhattan including calls to Pottawatomie County. He also added that Riley County should not be legally providing the services.
Wilson also added that since they had received a draft from Pottawatomie County, they should continue discussions before jumping to cutting off services before June 1.
Commissioner Ron Wells chimed in, saying Pottawatomie County has had plenty of time to make its payments. He then motioned to terminate the services effective June 1, unless Pottawatomie County has paid their pending charges in full and accepted a contract.
“They’ve had six months to purchase an ambulance,” Wells said. “I just want to put an end to this on our part so we can focus on Riley County business. I’m open to continuing that if we have an acceptable contract.”
Rodriguez seconded the motion but stated that he wants the services terminated in two weeks. However, Wilson said he would be more comfortable if it were two or three months till they terminate service.
“We will give them enough time to build their station and put an ambulance over there,” Rodriguez said, “The quicker they build it, the quicker they can get out of the contract.”
Vargo added the county has never made money off ambulance services, even with the new system in place.
Still, officials say Riley County ambulances would be available to Pottawatomie County for circumstances that require emergency back-up.
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