Is it finally over?
May 21st, 2007 by 
colson
The Brandon city council is set to take final action on a new ambulance ordinance for the city of Brandon.
After months of discussion, an election and significant revisions to the ordinance could this mean the issue will finally be settled.
And in what is of most interest to most residents of the city who will be providing ambulance service?
Posted in Uncategorized | 
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:06 am
The council has made many changes…actually it is a whole new ordinance…but I feel some very important issues were not addressed. We don’t have the requirement of a county license. We are not requiring the services medical director to have privlidges at the Sioux Falls hospitals. Response times have not been addressed. Any thoughts on this? No medical over sight has been set up yet.
I do give the council credit for putting background checks in place.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
“City officials here are willing to pony up money for quality assurance reviews of licensed ambulance services despite objections from some residents”….quote from Tues. Argus Leader.
Sure didn’t take the council long to go back on their word. They stated numerous times this would NOT cost additional money. And where did the $2000 amount come from??? Was that the amount they counted on paying REMSA to do the oversight? Back to the drawing board, REMSA turned them down. Did they really believe REMSA would do this, if so, that was silly of them.
Another quote…”Council member Brett Karber said it is crucial the city cover some of the review costs, as requiring a service to pay fully might deter it from applying with the city.”
I CAN’T believe the nerve of this guy! It wasn’t crucial for the city to cover it when Rural Metro had our service! And it didn’t deter them from applying. Why would it deter others? ie: Medstar. People…we were getting all this for FREE before the council decided to hire Medstar.
Nobody answered the question earlier about who’s paying for background checks and all the other associated costs.
The people of Brandon should be outraged. We voted and now they went against their word. I have no respect or trust anymore for my city government.
And now they’ve opened the door in regards to licensing fees for other business. $25.00 for a life saving ambulance service. Now the contractors are whining about $250.00 for 3 years. (Mr. Karber told the contractors to come up with the number they thought fair) Let’s just let any business decide what they want to pay. What you charge one, you better be prepared to charge the others. The city could lose BIG bucks here, but paying more for Ambulance services….what’s wrong with this picture?
May 25th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Within the last few weeks, I’ve overheard 3 conversations regarding Brandon’s ambulance issue. (outside of Brandon) Two groups must have been medical or EMS people. The jist of those conversations is this—–our decision makers are the laughing stock. They couldn’t believe what is going on over here.