Ambulance situation remains up in air

The Chickasaw County Ambulance Council has a little more than 3 1/2 months to find a provider, yet at a meeting Tuesday night, council members made little headway on finalizing a request for proposals (RFP) that they hope to send out by April 1.And that has led to concerns that the county will be without ambulance service on July 1, because the current provider, the Chickasaw Ambulance Service, has opted out of its current contract, effective June 30.The Ambulance Council discussed a draft RFP during Tuesday’s meeting, and the plan is to meet again this coming Tuesday to refine the RFP, but members will do so without its contracted attorney, William Baresel of the Prichard Law Office, because the council is trying to reach an agreement with the law firm on how it will pay for Baresel’s services.For uninterrupted service, the contract will have to be signed and an ambulance service would need to be in place by July 1, which will require funding and approval from the County Board of Supervisors.The county will pay the Chickasaw Ambulance Service $50,000 on July 1 for what will be the final year of the current contract, but the county currently has no money set aside to pay for service starting the next fiscal year, although Ambulance Council Chairman Steve Geerts said the county could use money from its end-of-the-year fund balance.— For more on this story, see the March 15 New Hampton Tribune.