During their regular meeting on Monday, March 16, the New Cordell City Council discussed ongoing issues with the city’s ambulance service. Council president Steve McLaughlin brought up the matter while reviewing the city’s departmental reports.
McLaughlin asked city administrator J.C. Moser about the status of the city’s ambulance service, to which Moser replied, “I don’t have anything new, except the ambulance service is running in the black if you include their billing and the fee on the utility bill.”
The two discussed a possible issue with the ambulance billing and Moser told the council that of all the runs the service made, they were able to identify just one that wasn’t properly billed.
At that point Mayor Jerry Beech joined in the discussion and clarified the ambulance service’s financial condition. He explained that all of the fulltime ambulance personnel are paid out of the fire department’s budget, so if that was accounted to the ambulance service it would actually be running in the red.
McLaughlin then commented that he felt the ambulance service wasn’t delivering the proper level of service to the community, especially with regard to transferring patients from Cordell Memorial to other hospitals.
“They’re (city customers) paying on their bill to be taken care of and they’re not.”
He suggested the city start looking at other options to provide ambulance service to residents.
In other action, the council voted unanimously to close the city park and waive vendor fees for two upcoming events. The Cordell Chamber of Commerce Easter Egg will be held April 11 and the Cordell Freedom Festival and chainsaw carving competition will be held July 3 and July 4.