The Stuart City Council continues to search for solutions to solve the budgetary woes of Stuart Rescue, which continues to lose money on an annual basis while providing 24 hour a day, 365 day a year service to the community.

A committee of leaders formed at a Council meeting on March 24th has brainstormed solutions and decided to contact Emergency Medical Services (EMS) consultant Jeff Dumermuth, who also serves as Chief of West Des Moines EMS and charges $75/hour for his consultation services. The Council will meet with Dumermuth at their April 25th meeting.

In the meantime, the issue is affecting the Stuart Police Department. Chief David Reha says on occasion, he and his officers drive the Stuart Rescue ambulance, and he is worried that a major police call could come in while they are out of the area transporting a patient to a distant hospital in Des Moines. Reha adds that although there is downtime when patrolling Stuart, there are sporadic periods of weeks where the Police Department responds to as many calls as the Guthrie County Sheriff’s office and wants to make sure residents have a police force always able to respond in an expedient manner. Reha also expressed concern that if he responds to an emergency under the authority of Stuart Rescue, then Health Insurance Affordability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations may limit or convolute what he can do as a law enforcement officer in that situation, or vice versa. 

Additionally, Mayor Dick Cook expressed concern that Stuart Rescue Director Ron Ross is overworked and getting burned out. Ross stated that he worked nine straight 24 hour days during a period in January, but was only compensated for about four of them.

Ross, who was hired in June 2014, is married with young children and has yet to take any vacation time since being hired. He also routinely works on days that were originally scheduled to be days off.

Ross told the Council that adding a second full-time paramedic would fix many of the issues of being overworked and getting burned out, but the Council has to figure out how to add that major expense to a department that is already hemorrhaging money.

Councilor Bryan Belden laid out three options for further funding Stuart Rescue, including increasing tax levies, dipping deeper into the City’s reserves and increasing the City’s Hotel/Motel Tax, which is currently at five percent, below the state maximum of seven percent. It was stated that many neighboring communities and those in the metro levy for the full seven percent tax. 

Councilor Neal Crawford says he wants the Council to take a full look at the operations and staffing of the City’s emergency services and make sure taxpayers are receiving services that are operating as fiscally efficiently as they can be.

Although no Councilors were excited about the prospect of potentially raising taxes, Mayor Dick Cook hearkened back to the March 24th meeting, in which nobody in a crowd of approximately 50 residents objected to the thought of paying more taxes if it meant keeping the luxury of 24/7/365 Emergency Medical Services in Stuart.