TUCKER COUNTY, W.Va. (WBOY) — On June 27, the Tucker County Commissioners abolished the $50 yearly ordinance fee in a 2-1 vote. The yearly ordinance fee had supported the Tucker County EMS for the past three years.
The ordinance allowed the Tucker County EMS to contract more paramedics and EMTs. The abolishment is a blow according to Tucker County EMS assistant director and paramedic, Scott Kennedy.
“Since they have talked about abolishing the fee, the $50 ordinance fee, we have lost basically all of our paramedics. We basically lost half of our staff,” he said. “There may be a lot of times that somebody calls for an ambulance now that we don’t have the staff to retain, due to the funding, they may not receive an ambulance.”
The removal of the ordinance is coming off the heels of the Ambulance Levy that was voted against in May. While the rejection of the levy saw negative effects according to Kennedy, the ordinance going away isn’t helping any matters for the Tucker County EMS.
“Basically, starting next month there are days where we don’t have the staff for one crew. We have one employee working to staff an ambulance through the county for that entire day,” Kennedy said. “We were reliant on that fee.”
