ELKINS – A special EMS fee will go into effect in Randolph County starting in July.

The Randolph County Commission voted in favor of the second and final reading of a Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee Ordinance during its regular meeting this week.

Commissioners David Kesling and Cris Siler were present at the meeting and supported the fee that will officially go into effect on July 1.

“We are adopting the ordinance today and the first payment would be on July 5,” Kesling said. “We will be getting letters out to all the entities that will be collecting the fee.

“We are letting them know so if they have any questions they can reach out to us. They will start collecting the fee on June 1.”

Kesling said the County Commission has posted information about the fee for several weeks and have been talking about it at previous meetings.

“We’ve talked about the fee at meetings and had it posted on our website,” Kesling said. “We have had conversations with people throughout the community and I’ve tried to answer all of their questions straight forward.”

Kesling said the Commission could have made several different decisions when it came to finding funding needed for the Randolph County Emergency Squad, who announced back in March that it was facing a $1 million budget shortfall.

“We could have taken several other routes, but we chose this one because we felt it was more fair than the others,” Kesling said. “The fee is on anybody in the county and anybody coming through the county as well.”

The other options the County Commission discussed were a county levy and an amusement tax.

“This is a fee for all purposeful revenue regenerating activity engaged in, or caused to be engaged in, the object of gain or economic benefit, either direct or indirect,” Kesling said. “All sales of the 6% West Virginia sales tax collected will have a 0.4% fee. The fee collected will come through the Sheriff’s Office and the funds will be held in an account in an account called ‘The Randolph County EMS Fund.’ The funds shall be used by the Randolph County Ambulance Authority only for reasonable and necessary expenses actually incurred, like equipment, utilities, vehicles, vehicle maintenance and service.”

Kesling said money in the fund can only be released with the proper approval of the County Commission.

“The money will only be released after a request to the County Commission, along with supporting invoices and documentation acceptable by the Commission,” Kesling said. “Any requests will then have to be approved at a Randolph County Commission meeting.

“The ordinance may from time-to-time be amended by a majority of the Randolph Commission as they deem necessary and appropriate.” 

Kesling said that, with a majority vote, the Randolph County Commission can also adjust the fee as they see necessary and appropriate.

“If the state ever comes through with a proper funding mechanism for the EMS, we could do away with the fee,” Kesling said.

In February, EMS director Kurt Gainer asked the Randolph County Commission for help with the million-dollar budget shortfall.

Gainer had three proposals for the Commission, with the first being a levy. The second option Gainer presented was an amusement tax, and the third was an ambulance service fee.

The Randolph County Emergency Squad currently operates three fully staffed stations in the county in Elkins, Mill Creek, and Harman.

Last year 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.”

Gainer later acknowledged that decision to stop making transports has hurt the EMS financially, but said there are other factors contributing to the budget shortfall, including escalating costs of medicine and other necessary items.

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.

The next Randolph County Commission meeting will be on May 7 at 1:30 p.m.