Rescue Squad no more?

ANSON — On the brink of bankruptcy, Tyler Greene, of the Anson Rescue Squad, requested $420,480 for yearly salaries for the squad’s EMTs and Paramedics at the county commissioner’s mid-October meeting in order to keep the doors open and the lights on.

Greene informed the board the Rescue Squad is working with failed or expired equipment, their utility payments have been delayed for months and the squad can currently only afford to pay staff salaries. Without financial assistance from the county, Greene is emphatic that the Rescue Squad will not continue to the close of the year. Ultimately, commissioners voted to table the issue until County Manager Leonard Sossoman can access other financial avenues commissioners can pursue to find funding from outside the county’s coffers to fund the Rescue Squad.

“I would give an approximation that we [Rescue Squad] probably would not make it to the end of the year,” said Greene.

Should the squad be forced to close its doors, it would be in violation of its contract with the county to provide a truck that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as pointed out by Commissioner Chair Jamie Caudle.

“We talked to the county manager a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago now, about some financial difficulties we are having at the Rescue Squad. What we have found going forward, financially, we are not going to be able to sustain this current economy unless we have further funding to do so,” said Greene, reminding commissioners the emergency service entity has been under some type of contract with the county since 2006 to provide ambulance services to residents.

“To begin with, it [the contract] was more considered a prime time basis. We had a truck that would run during the busy times of the day. Then, somewhere around 2013 we transitioned to a 24/7 operating ambulance,” he explained, adding so far for the 2024 year the Rescue Squad has answered about 1,500 calls for the county. “On average, by year, we run about 2,200 or so calls for the county and that includes ambulance calls itself and the volunteer rep calls,” he said.

Greene explained the squad receives funding in two ways: From the county commissioners on the allotment provided in their contract, and with call payments taken in.

“As things change in the economy — and the economy puts burdens on us — we are currently seeing some of the lowest paid call volumes that we have ever had,” said Greene. “We are not getting reimbursements like we used too. Sometimes, policies change, laws change within the insurance companies and they are not required to pay the same thing that they were three, four, or five years ago.”

Caudle cautioned his fellow commissioners the county would not get any of their $420,480 investment back like they would if it were being paid to county EMS staff. He added that if the squad were to cease operations, the county would, as it is already doing marginally now, need to fill in that gap. Running the numbers, Caudle confirmed with Greene that the $420,480 is derived from what it would cost for an ambulance to run staffed with one paramedic.

“We are not actually able to pay the utilities, the bills, the incidentals that come along with truck maintenance, equipment going down, we have a lot of equipment that is failing, we have ambulances that will not run. The county was able to sell us an ambulance for a dollar a while back and we were extremely thankful for that. We have yet to be able to get it on the road, because we cannot afford the equipment to put in it. We are probably looking at another $100,000 just in equipment,” said Greene.

Another issue for Rescue Squad is when the county transitioned to a new radio system, Rescue Squad was only able to purchase some of the radio equipment.

“We are still operating off of old equipment that is set to expire and go out, we will have to replace that. We currently have the radios on a loan that we are struggling to pay off,” said Greene. He went on to say the billing company for the squad is the same one the county uses, and Rescue Squad is currently about $10-12,000 behind on payments to them.

“What we are requesting is that the county look at paying the payroll for this paid ambulance and letting us take the call payments that we receive and use that for all the incidentals, all the utilities, all the upkeep of the agency itself.”

A civic entity that needs money in order to thrive, Greene said he believes if the Rescue Squad were to close, the county would not only be losing decades of talent and experience, as represented by its long-time employees, the county would also lose the ambulance and still need to compensate payroll.

According to a profit loss statement from 2022, the Rescue Squad is spending over half of its money on payroll. Rescue Squad paramedics and EMTs are paid $10 and $15 an hour, whereas county EMTs and paramedics are making $20 and $28 an hour.

Answering a question posed by Commissioner Gatewood, Greene said the Rescue Squad has about 24 part-time, at-will employees, and of those, six to seven are also Anson County EMS employees, though Greene says the squad does have quite a few that are also full-time county employees in some capacity.

“We are spending about as much on a fundraiser as we are making back,” said Greene in response to a question posed by Commissioner Jarvis Woodburn regarding alternate means of funding, such as through fundraisers.

Mentioning a grant secured by State Representative Mark Brody for each county department to receive $50,000, Commissioner Caudle questioned if the Rescue Squad had applied for the grant.

“I did submit that form and it was rejected and returned back to us. We told them that we needed it for certain costs that were going on at the time, bills, payroll, whatever we could use it for, and it was rejected and we were told that it had to be done for a new project,” said Greene.

Caudle suggested the county kick the proverbial can down the road until the end of the year.

“I would have to verify with Ms. [Holly] Berry our finance officer, but I think that money can be used for salaries, so if we could get that $50,000 for some salaries, I’m saying that to kick the can down the road to the end of the year at least, to allow us a little more time to see where we can come up with some more money. But, I don’t know that to be a fact, but I can discuss with her and the state if that is an option, if that would help Rescue out,” said Caudle.

Stating the county was not in a position to write a check for $420,480, Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood suggested the Rescue Squad be integrated into county EMS.

“I’ll raise this point again. I raise it every time the Rescue Squad comes before the board, and that is given the dire situation that Anson Rescue is in, and given the fact that we are not in a position to write a check for $420,000 in this fiscal year, is it time for us to seriously consider integrating, combining forces of Anson Rescue Squad and Anson EMS,” said Commissioner Lawrence Gatewood, adding the amount of requested money represents 1% of the general fund budget for this fiscal year.

The idea of integrating the two entities is a delicate one according to Greene.

“I am just going to be honest, it is not about me … or whomever runs EMS, at the end of the day it is about the people that are working on these ambulances, the ones that are on the ground answering the calls and if they are not willing to budge and do it, it is not going to happen. The Rescue Squad has a deep history in Anson County, it has been here since 1958, you know people’s grandmas, grandpas, great-grandpas and great-grandmas. I mean that they have had this stock in this Rescue Squad for so many years and there are certain things you will just never be able to undo and I believe this might be one of them. You cannot replace human connection … You can’t replace these EMTs and paramedics who have been answering calls for 10 or 15 years, and they know these people, they know the streets, they know everybody here, they know all the resources, so I really do not want to go down a road that is going to cause people to leave us,” said Greene.

County Manager Leonard Sossoman informed the board the state of North Carolina is causing audits across the state to be held up, making it nearly impossible to provide commissioners with an accurate balance in the county’s fund balance.

“Every audit in every county and town and city in the state now is being held up because of the state of North Carolina. I can probably give you a rough idea of what your fund balance was a year ago… but that does not mean that is what it is today,” said Sossoman.

Jarvis Woodburn said he would like to see the Rescue Squad be able to continue, though he understands the precarious financial situation the county is in. He said he is hopeful commissioners and Sossoman can find another means of funding to keep the Rescue Squad operational.

“I’ll make a motion that we have the county manager and finance officer look further into this and try to put together some funding options that we can take a look at,” said Woodburn, with Commissioner Pricilla Little Reid seconding his motion.

Voting in unison to table the issue of funding the Rescue Squad, the vote passed with no dissent.