ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Seward County EMS officials have estimated the department will receive a new ambulance by mid-January 2025.
Monday, county commissioners unanimously approved cutting a check for $50,654.75 to cover the cost of a power load and cot for that ambulance.
The project was started in 2022 at the county’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget hearings, and EMS Director John Ralston said the county has taken the fastest path to purchasing a new ambulance.
“They have been back logged on building EMS vehicles,” he said. “It was decided we needed to order a vehicle with the anticipation of a two-year wait.”
The $50,000 approved Monday was part of what was an original cost of nearly $330,000, but Ralston said that cost has been reduced thanks to some help from local and state officials.
“Early on, we were able to get that donation of a local grant for the cot load system, which was $50,654.75, which brought the balance down to $279,270 for the remainder,” he said. “I did contact the company because the ship date or the completion date’s getting closer, and they’re in the build process of it.”
Ralston said the only variable price on the project was the cost of the truck, and while it was initially expected that cost would go up from $279,000, it was actually reduced to $277,401.
Ralston said the cost went down even further after he recently applied for a Rural Health Grant.
“I applied for it to see if we get some help to minimize the cost to the county taxpayers with the remaining $277,000,” he said.
Ralston thanked several local leaders for providing letters of support for the application, including Liberal Area Coalition for Families Director Sarah Mersdorf-Foreman, High Plains Heritage Foundation Director Kay Burtzloff, Seward County Development Corporation Director Eli Svaty and City of Liberal Chief Communications Officer Keeley Moree.
“I want to thank them for putting out the effort to support us in our project,” he said.
Ralston said the county did get selected for the grant and will receive $200,000,
“When we get the check in, it’s electronically submitted, so it’ll come into our account,” he said. “Then we will put the money into our donation account to pay for the truck when it’s ready. With all of this said, the total cost to the county would be that $77,401, will be our remaining balance. I think the prayer for helping us came to fruition here.”
Ralston said he said he would need approval Monday to issue a check out of the EMS Donations account for the $50,000 needed to pay for the power load and cot.
“That is where we put the money we got for the load system,” he said. “I did not pay for that until they were ready to put it in the truck because the warranty starts on shipping, and I didn’t want to use up any warranty time while we were waiting on the build, but I’ll need to ship that by December.”
Ralston said he would pay the $50,000 when he gets the approval to ship the ambulance.
“I’ll sign when they get me the receipt or get me the invoice on it,” he said.
Commission Vice Chair Tammy Sutherland-Abbott made the motion to cut a check from EMS Donations for $50,654.75 to cover the power load and cot for the new ambulance. Commissioner Presephoni Fuller seconded the motion, and the motion was unanimously approved.
Ralston said letters of support were required for the grant application, and he said he could not advertise the name of the company that gave the donation.
“I can tell you I will provide that information,” he said. “I have been in contact with them daily, and they’re not a local group. It’s a group out of Missouri.”
Fuller said the ambulance is much needed for the county, and it did not matter where the money came from for the project.
“What matters is community matters and that’s a community effort that benefit us all,” she said. “I think it’s very important we continue to move forward and work together on other projects that will help this not come out of the taxpayer dollars but help still service this community in such a great way. I just commend you for that. It sounds a whole lot better than $277,000. It was a lot of efforts. It wasn’t a one-person effort. Thank you. Prayer does work, and thank you so much for working so diligently on that.”
