Slight budget increase OK?d for ambulance service

The Safety Committee has finished budget talks for all of the departments under its authority, with one of those budgets, the Drug Fund, being the only budget currently officially approved by the Budget and Finance Committee. However, this is due to the fact the fund is totally supported by drug fines and property seizures and no tax money is used to finance it.

The other budgets under the Safety Committee ? sheriff, jail, ambulance service and E911 ? however, are all still subject to Budget and Finance Committee approval and could be returned to the Safety Committee for further reductions. Though cuts to the E911 budget are unlikely, since its $122,500 budget represented no increase over the 2005-2006 budget, the sheriff, jail and ambulance service budgets did post increases and could be subject to revision.

After the sheriff and jail budgets were passed last week and moved on to Budget and Finance with a total $184,000 increase over last year, the committee examined the ambulance service budget.

Working with ambulance service director Leonard Madewell, the committee made a number of judicious cuts to the $1.86 million budget.

The first cut came with drugs and medical supplies, which, at $65,000, showed a $10,000 increase over last year.

?That covers any kind of drugs, medicine, bandages, that type of thing. They have gone up considerably this year,? Madewell said. ?I guess anybody who has gotten any prescriptions filled lately can verify that. But I think we might be able to get by a little cheaper.?

The committee eventually agreed to a $5,000 increase, dropping the line item from $65,000 to $60,000 after director of accounts Linda Hillis reported as of June 30 the department had spent $58,000 this year.

The committee left the fuel requests as listed, with $20,710 for diesel fuel, $2,000 for gasoline, which Madewell said us used for certain equipment, like the Jaws of Life, and $4,000 for lubricants, such as grease and oil.

A request for $10,000 to provide uniforms for ambulance personnel drew the attention of committee members, who asked Hillis how much was spent last year and were told it came to about $6,800.

?We try to conserve everything we can there,? Madewell said. The committee decided to allot $6,000 for a decrease of $4,000.

The other supplies and materials line item was listed at $2,500, which Madewell said went to manuals and materials for continuing education as well as providing funds to recognize workers.

?Every year we try to do a little something for the employees,? Madewell said. Committee members cut $1,000 there, feeling $1,500 was sufficient for this purpose.

The ambulance budget requested $7,000 under ?other charges,? which Madewell said was for drug screenings and to fund legal services. The committee made a $3,000 cut, reducing it to $4,000.

A request for $7,000 for ?other equipment? was for what Madewell termed a ?wish list.?

?There?s a new system out,? Madewell said. ?We do everything by paper, trip sheets and everything. This is a Palm Pilot system where you can program everything in while you?re in the back of the ambulance, then when you get to the hospital, you can print off a sheet on their printer. And when we get back at our service we can print off a sheet that?s legal, it?s binding, instead of buying the three-part trip sheets. I think we can save some money there, but if you don?t think it?s feasible, then we?ve lived with things the way they are for 30 years, so we can keep on with it.?

The committee decided the new system could wait until budgets weren?t so tight, and opted to cut the $7,000.

With a total of $20,000 in cuts, the ambulance budget came in at $1.84 million, a $60,000 increase over the 2005-2006 budget of $1.78 million. The committee voted unanimously to submit the budget to the Budget and Finance Committee for its approval.