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ELKINS – The Randolph County Commission approved an excess levy for the Randolph County Ambulance Authority this week.
Commissioners David Kesling, Cris Siler and Kenna Barger unanimously approved running the levy, which will be placed on the election ballot for the November General Election.
In April, the Commission approved a Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee Ordinance, but then suspended the fee last month, just after it went into effect. Their decision to suspend the fee came after the state Tax Department informed commissioners that the fee violated the streamlined sales tax agreement.
Kesling said during this week’s commission meeting that he was told by the state that the county would be sued if they didn’t suspend the fee until further investigation.
“We took it to the Attorney General of the state of West Virginia and asked him to form an opinion on it and whether or not we could continue the fee,” Kesling said. “We received a letter last week from the Attorney General that said he received information on the fee and was reviewing it.”
Kesling said that because the county was on hold with the fee, and that there was no way of predicting the outcome, Commissioners had to find a way to provide funding for the EMS.
“If we want to continue to have an ambulance service in this county, something is going to have to give,” Kesling said. “We tried to do that with the fee, something that was less evasive as we could. We got stopped with that. The county doesn’t have the money to help fund them… We are still waiting on the Attorney General’s decision, but we have to do something in case that doesn’t go through.”
Kesling told those attending the meeting that the Randolph County Emergency Squad recently started performing ambulance transports again at Davis Medical Center. During the meeting the Commission also approved additional funding of $70,000 to the Randolph County EMS.
“This year we approved the $110,000 to give to the EMS and we are going to do an additional funding of $70,000 to help cover expenses,” Kesling said. “We started taking transports back (at EMS) and until funding starts to come back in for that, which will be a couple months before we start seeing that come in, this (funding) will help out with payroll and other expenses.”
In August 2025, officials announced that the Randolph EMS would no longer be making hospital-to-hospital transports from Davis Medical Center.
This week, Kesling told The Inter-Mountain that he and Siler recently met with Vandalia Health officials, and that the Randolph EMS would be starting to once again provide transports to DMC.
“We started transports back at the hospital for that income, but that money is not going to hit their bank account for several weeks,” Kesling said. “We have to come up with a fix for this service to continue. Prices are going up, things are changing.”
Randolph County Emergency Squad deputy director Heather Brown and former Randolph County Assessor Phyllis Yokum were asked to attend and speak during this week’s meeting. Brown spoke about the Emergency Squad’s expenses, while Yokum provided details about the Excess Levy.
“The shell of an ambulance alone was roughly around $250,000 to $200,000,” Brown said. “With all the equipment we are required, radios, medication, you’re looking at almost a half million dollars.”
Brown said the EMS recently had to temporarily close its station in Harman because it is having trouble making ends meet.
“We are stressed to the max handling calls,” Brown said. “It’s not been very efficient for the citizens of Randolph County having the reduced manpower we’ve had the past two weeks.”
Yokum, who retired as Randolph County’s assessor in 2024 after working 43 years in the assessor’s office, gave a breakdown of the classes and examples of how much the Excess Levy would cost those in the county.
“I was asked by (Randolph EMS Director) Kurt Gainer initially to discuss with them the possibility of a levy,” Yokum said. “But my help is to crunch the numbers and see what tax rate it’s going to take to bring in this amount of money. Obviously, I worked with that for many years and I agreed to help with it.”
Yokum said it will be a $950,000 per year levy.
“You use the assessed values for the current year to calculate those levies and this would be starting in July of 2027 and will be on the ballot (this) Nov. 3rd,” Yokum said. “It takes a 60% vote in order to pass it.”
Yokum said the Class 1 rate doesn’t affect anyone in Randolph County, but for the Class 2 rate, which is residential property, homes and active farms, the levy rate would be 3.88 cents on every $100 assessed value evaluation.
“Class 3 and Class 4 are for the same type of property, it’s just Class 3 is outside a municipality and Class 4 is inside a municipality,” Yokum said. “But that rate is still the same and it’s 7.76 cents per hundred. And Class 3 property is all of your business property, rentals, commercials, and that type of thing for real estate. And it is also your vehicles in the county, whether you are inside or outside the city limits. It’s all of your vehicles.”
Yokum added that the EMS is proposing that the levy be for five years, which is the typical length.
“If you have a property, a Class 2 home that’s appraised for $30,000, the assessed value is $18,000 and the impact of this levy to that taxpayer would be $6.98 on the year,” Yokum said. “Say you have a nicer home that appraises for $100,000, the assessed value is $60,000, that means $23.28 to that tax payer, the increase in taxes for the year. If you have a really nice home and it appraises for $350,000, your assessed value is $210,000. The impact to that taxpayer would be $81.48.
“When you go to a Class 3 or Class 4 piece of property, the tax rate doubles, that’s just the way it works and has worked for ever. They would see potentially a bit more increase. So say you have a piece of property that’s used as a rental or commercial and it’s appraised at $50,000, the assessed value would be $30,000 and the impact on that taxpayer is $23,28.”
The Randolph County Emergency Squad must provide a specific list for what the money from the Levy will be used for. Brown provided the breakdown to the Commission, which included workforce and compliance training ($175,000), advanced field medical equipment ($150,000), fleet response maintenance ($350,000), and station infrastructure and critical operations continuity ($275,000).
“With the money that is being requested on the levy, we’ve asked them to break it down so that we know and the public knows what the money would go toward,” Kesling said. “We want to make sure that the public knows exactly what’s going in, and what’s going out… A lot of people who gave us grief and did not like the fee, told us to do a levy where they could vote on it. Well, here’s their chance and if you want this (EMS) to continue, we have to pass this levy to continue a service that has been around for over 40 years.”
The next Randolph County Commission meeting will be Aug. 20 at 1:30 p.m.