Commissioners receive an update on Rescue Squad concerns

WADESBORO — Former Chief of the Rescue Squad Tyler Green and current Chief Anthony Ratliff came before the Anson County Commissioners at their January 16 meeting to discuss ongoing issues within the department.

Speaking on behalf of the duo, Green began his address to the board with a brief overview of the services provided by the Rescue Squad, pointing out the service works under contract with the county and the board. Stipulated in the contract is the requirement for the Rescue Squad to have available a paid 911 ambulance staff 24/7 running a third of the calls for the county.

“I went back and ran the call counts last year for 2023 for the Rescue Squad,” stated Green. “We ran about 2,210 calls and the county EMS ran 3,435 calls, so combining that together, it would be a total of approximately 5,645 calls for the county.”

Further breaking down funding, Green mentioned that Commissioners provided the Rescue Squad with $64,000.00, which averaged out to be about $228.95 every time the squad answered a call. “Just for comparative reasons, to show the benefit we provide to the county, the county EMS budget was allocated for $2,894,129.00 cost per call every time EMS ran out that was $842.54 … so that is where our benefit really comes in.” Green believes this helps alleviate tax dollars spent by being able to run calls for a lesser amount.

Staffing for paramedics and EMT’s are hard to come by across the country, and Anson County is not immune to the staffing struggle.

“In 2023 there was a study from the National Association of EMT’s and they reported 2/3 of EMS agencies had a decrease in applications,” bemoaned Green. “Over 27% of agencies reported a decline in applications in over more than 25%, turnover is also high.” Green relates high turnover with grievances over salary.

“Anson County has always had a pay issue and we have had to compete with other bigger counties that can pay more. We are supposed to operate 24/7 per the contract and do a third of the calls per year. When staff is sick, injured, or for example out on maternity leave, we had three pregnant crew members all at once last year and we had to work through that… two of them are still out of work at this time, but through the year of 2023, we were only able to not staff that unit for a total of 12 shifts,” Green explained.

A question posed by Bricken involved multiple responders answering the same call. “If you are called out and soon after the call is made, you find out that someone else has already responded, does that still count as a call even if you don’t go all the way to the scene?”

Green confirmed that it would constitute as an official call though he cautioned that the amount of times such a situation would arise is rare.

Chairman Jamie Caudle interjected to share that a concern of the coverage of the trucks. “I see in your report there were only twelve working shifts in the year 2023 that you were unable to cover,” Caudle said. “We have documentation that in the month of December there were twelve different times where there was a truck offline with rescue.”

Speaking as Peachland’s Fire Department Chief, Caudle continued, “I’m in emergency services as well… there is no set time when an emergency is going to happen. We need to do whatever we can to make sure that we have an emergency truck available at all times that whole shift.”

According to Caudle, the matter came to the attention of commissioners because they were not fulfilling duties of having a truck 24/7.

Commissioner Robert Mims also shared his concerns, stating, “I understand what they are saying being short staffed, but it is days that we do not have anybody with a qrv [quick response vehicle] in Morven because they are short staffed. I think everybody is short staffed and I think there just needs to be time for them to get in a place, whether it is the county or the Anson Rescue, to raise their rates up and hire more people to come in and answer calls. I think it’s a disservice to both, but they are not the only ones, we are in a disservice too,” pointed out Mims.

Chairman Caudle agreed, adding that staffing issues are seen across the board in every occupation.

“One issue we have,” chimed in Ratliff, “is a lot of people that work for EMS also work for the Rescue Squad. A call may last two or three hours depending on where the destination is, a lot of us have to get off early in the mornings so that we can get to our EMS shift the next day. We do our best to get that time covered by the next incoming shift but sometimes that is not possible either.”

Another concern is aging equipment. “There are a lot of times that we only have one unit,” Ratliff continued. “It seems like by the time we take one out of service and get it fixed in the shop, the other one has to go. It is time for replacement and as you can see we don’t have the funds for that.”

Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood voiced his personal praise and support for Anson’s Rescue Services as a whole, while adding, “We are a small county, our population has declined significantly over the last ten years. A question that continues to resonate in my mind is would there be any advantages to combining the efforts of the Anson EMS and the Anson Rescue Squad?”

Green and Ratliff both responded to Commissioner Gatewood, citing the delicacy of the situation as reasoning for holding off on answering publically at this time. Fifteen to twenty years ago, when Gatewood was County Manager, he made a similar suggestion that ended in his being “Tarred and feathered as a result of it.”

“I may have been too abrasive, too abrupt, but it has been twenty years, and I think it is time for us to reconsider it to see if there would be some advantages to joining forces, combining our resources and moving forward as one,” Gatewood elaborated. “That is all I will say about it.”

Addressing Gatewood’s concerns, Caudle shared that a committee has been formed to look into the option of combining Anson EMS and Anson Rescue Squad, sharing that, “At the end of the day we just want to make sure we are providing the best service to the citizens of the county. We appreciate the services that rescue is providing and we want to try to expand service all that we can.”

Commissioner Bricken added, “I just wanted to say thank you for all the work you have been doing as well, we appreciate it.”

Of particular concern to Ratliff moving forward is the loss of the Rescue Squad’s status as a nonprofit.

“Our mistake, and I take the blame there, is when we lost that 501c status, it was because we were ignorant of how to maintain it,” Ratliff said. “We have lost opportunities on some grants, trusts, and support from the public. Another mistake was when the tax referendum was presented to the county for the fire departments, rescue was left out.”

Ratliff feels that if the Rescue Squad had received some or the same amount of funding as the fire departments, they would be where the fire departments are now with newly renovated facilities and updated equipment. While announcing his pride in the work the fire departments have done with the money allotted to them, Ratliff can’t help but regret that Rescue Squad was not given the same opportunity.

Reminded of when the Economic Developement Board went through a similar incident, Bricken suggested County Manager Leonard Sossaman assist Ratliff in getting in touch with the accountant used by the EDB.Chairman Caudle reminded Green and Ratliff of the $50,000.00 recently approved in the state budget that will be coming their way soon, advising that he had charged Sossman with looking into a more definitive date for when those funds will be available.

While confirming that he would be contacting the state, Sossaman added, “Unfortunately they tell you it is a grant, and I guess it is, but they don’t just send you a check. You have to go out and jump through certain hoops and we are doing that now.”