The Vandalia City Council heard information on the ambulance service in the area and now will look to hold further meetings to try and find some sort of a solution.
The Council heard from Kim Bouser of Rural Med during their meeting on Monday as Mayor Rick Gottman requested she come to the meeting to address the council. Bouser says they maintain two ambulances each day in Fayette County and one dedicated to Vandalia. She says this costs $2,700 per ambulance each day and the call volume here does not support that. Bouser says they handle about 130 911 calls per month in Fayette County and 80% of those are in Vandalia. She also added that calls are up and revenues are down and they do not have any kind of support or contract in Fayette County, while they do have contracts in other counties and other areas that offer them some level of support. She says the support can come in a variety of ways, as some communities provide the ambulances and some allow their ambulances to be housed in a fire department to save Rural Med the cost of housing. There can also be dedicated funding for the ambulance service. Mayor Gottman says the concern he and Chief Jeff Ray has is there is no contract with Fayette County for Rural Med, meaning other areas with agreements would be the company’s priority.
The matter was referred off to the City’s Public Safety Committee for further discussion. Mayor Gottman also said he would reach out to the county for possibly a joint meeting.
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