Fire & Medical seeks financial help from county

Officials asking for $240K for depleted reserve fund

A depleted ambulance reserve fund for Lawrence Douglas County Fire & Medical has caused officials to request about $240,000 from Douglas County to help replenish it.

“There’s good reason to have a healthy reserve fund: So when things come up, we can cover it,” said Mark Bradford, deputy chief with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical.

The county used to contribute to the reserve fund, but cut back its funding the past several years. From 2002 through 2004, the new money in the ambulance reserve fund came from interest and increased collection of payments from customers. No extra funding came from the county during those years.

The commissioners approved a $150,000 transfer in the 2005 budget for the reserve fund, which primarily is used to purchase ambulances. In February, commissioners approved the purchase of a new ambulance worth about $200,000.

Officials say the department needs to bring the reserve back up to a reasonable amount.

“Now we are trying to do a catch up,” Bradford said.

County Administrator Craig Weinaug said the $150,000 was put into the 2005 budget to ease the county back into paying money into the reserve fund.

“We’re getting close to no money,” Assistant County Administrator Pam Madl said. County officials project the fund will have an $80,000 balance at the end of 2005. The tight balance has required the ambulance reserve fund be closely monitored, Madl said.

The county commission has been presented with a $48.65 million estimated budget for 2006. That would require commissioners to levy 30.12 mills. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed valuation.

Last year, the county levied 29.856 mills. The commission would have to cut about $80,000 from the proposed budget to sustain the 29.856 mill levy. The actual budget for 2005 was $47.5 million.

The three commissioners have indicated they would like the mill levy to remain steady. But Commissioners Bob Johnson and Charles Jones said they would be willing to increase the mill levy to collect $200,000 to help build new commercial laboratory space and to hire an executive to oversee the community’s bioscience development efforts.

A final vote on the 2006 budget will be taken in August.