Lone Star City Council to offer incentives to Champion Emergency Medical Services
Submitted by Daingerfield1 on
Marlene J. Bohr mbohr@steelcountrybee.com
Lone Star City Council unanimously voted to offerrent and utility payments for the ambulance service to stay stationed in the city of Lone Star. The decision was made at its July 1 city council meeting.
“Champion Emergency Medical Service has long been owned by Trinity Mother Francis and Good Shepherd Medical Center,” Mayor Karl Stoermer said. “The hospitals have told them they need to cut their costs. They said they would replace some ambulances with sport utility vehicles. They can’t transport anyone in the SUV, but the driver can administer some medications. That person with the SUV stays with the patient until the ambulance can arrive to transport the patient.
“They will dispatch the SUV quick responder ve- Lone Star City Council to offer incentives to Champion Emergency Medical Services Hughes Springs’ council vying for ambulance station in their city hicle first, but if the ambulance gets there first, they turn the quick responder vehicle around. While the ambulance is in your city, another ambulance from another city would cover. To save money, they are replacing some of the ambulances with the quick response vehicles.”
Mayor Stoermer said reports on the ambulance have been in newspapers. “In case you have not read it, Daingerfield pays Champion $50,000 and Marshall and others also pay them,” he said. “They came to me and told me what is going on. They made a point of telling me they are in negotiations with Hughes Springs, but it is not a done deal. I asked what it would take to get them to stay at this location in Lone Star. Right now they are paying $500 a month and utilities, which is a good price. If we picked up the $500 a month and the utilities, I think we would be able to at least keep negotiating to keep them in Lone Star instead of moving the vehicle over to Hughes Springs.
“They are driven by cost and if we offered to pick up their rent and utilities each month, they would consider putting their SUV here and continue to operate from here. That is the issue. I am not looking to use that facility on a long-term basis because if we have negotiations to buy Lone Star Elementary, we might as well have Champion located there. They have to make some decisions fairly soon with the next budget year. If we pick up their rent and utilities, I think it will go a long way towards keeping them here.”
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