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ELKINS – The Randolph County Commission will discuss the newly revised Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee Ordinance during Wednesday morning’s Rise & Shine event hosted by the Elkins-Randolph County Chamber.
County Commissioners David Kesling, Cris Siler and Kenna Barger will provide information and field questions at the event, which will be from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the West Virginia Wood Technology Center.
“What we learned from the first time when we tried to do this fee was that we needed to provide more information to the businesses it will affect,” Commission President Kesling told The Inter-Mountain. “So we reached out to the Chamber to see if we could tag along at one of their events where they bring business leaders in.”
The original fee, adopted earlier this year, was put in place to help fund the Randolph County Emergency Squad, which announced in March that it was facing a $1 million budget shortfall. That original fee was suspended, however, after the state Tax Department informed the Commission that the fee violated the streamlined sales tax agreement.
The Commission then approved an excess levy to replace the Service Fee Ordinance, which was slated to be on the General Election ballot in November. But in September, the RCC rescinded the excess levy vote after it learned from its attorneys that it could change the ordinance to a basic flat transaction fee.
The revised ordinance will establish a $0.10 fee on all items in the county that are not on an exemption list. The fee will be paid by the purchaser, and collected by the business or service provider.
“The ordinance was approved at one of our recent meetings and we have an effective date of Dec. 1,” Kesling said. “Myself and two commissioners, and Randolph County Emergency Squad Director Kurt Gainer will be at the event. We (the commissioners) will provide details about the ordinance, while Kurt (Gainer) will be there to talk about the EMS.”
Kesling said the County Commission will be collecting information from businesses for the next two months. He noted that he hopes to have some more informational meetings after Wednesday’s event.
“We have the rest of October and November to reach out and receive input from businesses,” Kesling said. “The reason we chose the ordinance instead of the levy is because we can change or end it at any time. If the levy would have been passed it would have been in place for five years. People would have been taxed on all their personal properties during that time.”
Kesling said the ordinance is being put in place to help get the EMS back to where it was before it lost hospital transports with Vandalia Health Davis Medical Center. In August 2025, the Randolph County Ambulance Authority announced that the Randolph County EMS was no longer going to be making hospital-to-hospital transports from Davis Medical Center.
“They (EMS) were making it when they were making transports,” Kesling said. “They are slowly gaining those transports back, but they are still reaching a monthly deficit. We don’t need an exorbitant amount of money, we just need enough to get them by. With the ordinance we can control and see if that $0.10 is too much. We can lower the ordinance and if we get to a point where the EMS is back on their feet, we can rescind the ordinance.”
Kesling added that there have been many rumors about the ordinance spreading around town that are simply not true.
“People are confused, they think it is $0.10 on every item you spend, or $0.10 on every dollar,” Kesling said. “It’s $0.10 on a whole transaction, so if you go to the store and buy something that is $50, it will come out to $50.10. It’s not placed on each item.”