ELKINS — The Randolph County Emergency Squad is close to $1 million short of its budget and county officials are looking at ways to make up the difference, including the possibility of creating a new ambulance service fee.

EMS director Kurt Gainer asked the Randolph County Commission for help with the issue during its most recent meeting.

“They are going to be short of about a million dollars with the way they are sitting right now,” Commission President Dave Kesling told The Inter-Mountain. “We don’t have an extra million dollars to give them, so they have thrown around a couple ideas to us that can make up that amount.”

Gainer had three proposals for the Commission, with the first being a levy.

“We really don’t want to come up with the money through a levy because of the track record in Randolph County,” Kesling said. “So the other two options Kurt (Gainer) came up with seem to be more viable for us and everyone else.”

The second option Gainer presented was an amusement tax, and the third was an ambulance service fee.

“Tucker County did the amusement tax to help out their EMS and it really worked out for them,” Kesling said. “The way it works is that the state gives the County Commission the authority to levy an amusement tax on different things, like a ski lift ticket. You can do it on anything amusement-wise.”

Both Kesling and Gainer agreed that the best option for all parties involved could possibly be an ambulance service fee.

“The Ambulance Service Fee is the route I like the best of all three of the options,” Kesling said. “Kurt (Gainer) is going to give me a detailed breakdown of what he is short and what he needs. Then I’m going to reach out to my contact with the state and see what all we can and can’t do with this fee. What you can put it on and what you can’t put it on.”

Gainer, who has been director of Randolph County EMS for the past 14 years, told The Inter-Mountain that residents would be paying approximately one penny on three-and-half dollars if ab ambulance service fee wis approved.

“It takes the big elephant and takes a lot of tiny bites out of it and it’s not targeting anybody,” Gainer said. “It’s a tax that businesses collect and then it comes back to the county, Times are changing and we have to do something to move forward.”

The Randolph County Emergency Squad currently operates three fully staffed stations in the county in Elkins, Mill Creek, and Harman. Gainer said there are several factors that have played into the budget being close to $1 million short.

On Aug. 12, the Randolph County Ambulance Authority announced that EMS would stop making hospital-to-hospital transports from Davis Medical Center in Elkins. At the time, officials said the decision was made “as a result of increased 911 call volume, rising operational costs, declining reimbursement rates, and the need to keep our personnel available for emergencies within Randolph County.”

This week, Gainer acknowledged that decision to stop making transports has hurt the EMS financially, but said there are other factors contributing to the budget shortfall.

“We lost some funding when we lost transports from Davis Medical Center,” Gainer told The Inter-Mountain. “But there is so much more to it than just that. We get no funding from the state and the whole industry has changed. The cost for everything is so much more expensive than it was several years ago. Everything changed during COVID and the prices of everything have continued to go up.”

The EMS currently has 11 ambulances that are stocked with 32 different medications on each unit. Gainer pointed out that one kit of Glucagon, which is a diabetic emergency medicine, is $382, while a cardiac monitor costs $46,000 and a cot for the ambulances is $30,834.

Gainer said Randolph County EMS recently went to a local bank to get a $200,000 line-of-credit that will help offset operational costs.

“That is pretty much our emergency funding right now,” Gainer said. “Because we’ve eaten through most of our savings.”

Gainer noted that the EMS is not in a situation where there is any difficulty in paying current employees, however

Gainer has been asked by the County Commission to make another presentation at the next meeting on March 5.