The Sweetwater County Commission is planning a special meeting to address the emergency services locally

GREEN RIVER – The Sweetwater County Commission will hold a special meeting on Wednesday March 24th at 12:00 noon to speak to the county emergency services.

The meeting will be held in the Commission Chambers of District Court 80 W. Flaming Gorge Way. The agenda includes the purpose of presenting information, discussing, taking action and a required executive meeting to discuss emergency services for Green River, Rock Springs, Sweetwater County and real estate. The meeting will be broadcast on the Sweetwater County Government YouTube channel.

The issue of emergency medical services subsidies has been on the air since the Sweetwater County Commission announced in December 2020 that it was terminating its contract with Sweetwater Medics and the Castle Rock Hospital District, which raised more than US 1 million Have provided dollars. The contract expires at the end of March.

A committee has been formed to look at short-term and long-term solutions for ambulances as part of a nationwide effort to consider consolidating certain services and efforts. The ambulance was selected as a top priority by the Sweetwater County’s Interstate Joint Leadership Group.

When the county announced its decision to terminate the contract, the commissioners asked other county entities, including the cities of Rock Springs and Green River, to help fund local emergency medical services.

Rock Springs City Council decided at its March 16 session to send a letter to the commission asking the county to continue funding the subsidy for the remainder of the fiscal year. The text of the letter should be determined.

At the Green River city council meeting that night, city administrator Reed Clevenger said he had spoken to Bailie Dockter, CEO of Castle Rock Medical Center, about the ambulance problem. Clevenger said he also informed the district commission that there have been meetings with the Castle Rock Ambulance Service to discuss areas of concern and what the city of Green River may or may not do to help.

When the district commission announced its decision to end its contract with ambulance providers in December, commissioners noted that the district wanted to continue supporting ambulance service but other options had to be considered, including help from other agencies such as cities.

Commissioner Roy Lloyd stated that the commission once subsidized the ambulance service by between $ 400,000 and $ 600,000. That amount rose to $ 1.2 to $ 1.3 million per year.

“We just can’t bear this burden of $ 1.2 to $ 1.3 million on our own,” Lloyd said at the December meeting.