 – The Shoshoni Town Council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 9, at Shoshoni Town Hall, 100 W. Third St. ){kind=link}
(Shoshoni, WY) – The Shoshoni Town Council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 9, at Shoshoni Town Hall, 100 W. Third St.
The agenda for the meeting includes a presentation from Wyoming Cardiopulmonary Services cardiologist Dr. Gary Idelchik and Wyoming Business Council Regional Director Patrick Edwards.
The council will also discuss the proposed agreement outlining a funding distribution plan for the potential three-quarter percent sales tax that Fremont County voters will consider passing in August to support commercial air service, public ground transportation, and the local ambulance system.
The council voted not to sign the agreement last month, but during a Riverton City Council meeting this week, Shoshoni Police Department Chief Chris Konija said he asked for the item to be added to this week’s town council agenda for reconsideration.
“Things have changed,” Konija said.
He was referring to the work of the Fremont County Association of Governments Regional Ambulance Service Evaluation Committee, which released a report last week outlining the benefits of establishing a publicly-run ambulance service under local governance in Fremont County.
The publicly-run service the committee described in its report would be developed in two phases, beginning with a model where fully paid, full-time employees would staff three ambulances in Riverton, one ambulance in Lander, one in the Fort Washakie/Ethete area, one in Dubois, and one dedicated transfer truck.
In phase two, the committee said the system would move to a “hybrid” model that would offer the same “core full-time deployment,” but with additional paid volunteer response vehicles positioned in “low call-volume rural areas” like Jeffrey City, Crowheart, and Shoshoni to “improve response times without the full cost of additional 24/7 units.”
Because Shoshoni is included in the coverage area for the proposed publicly-run ambulance service, town leaders may be more inclined to sign onto the funding distribution agreement for the .75 percent sales tax option, Konija said, explaining that, previously, town officials had expressed “frustration” that the sales tax revenues would support an ambulance system that didn’t provide Shoshoni with adequate service.
“Sending all that money for ambulance service they didn’t receive the benefit of was kind of the issue,” he said. “(But) I think that this change that has come about through RASEC … has changed the perception of this.”
Joint powers board
The Shoshoni Town Council will also consider a resolution Thursday supporting using a joint powers board – like FCAG – to operate the proposed publicly-run ambulance service.
The Fremont County Commission and the Riverton City Council both voted in favor of the joint powers board arrangement this week.
They also approved the amended .75 percent sales tax funding agreement that the Shoshoni Town Council will reconsider Thursday.
The final item on the Shoshoni Town Council agenda for Thursday’s special meeting involves a Main Street road closure.
The meeting is open to the public for in-person attendance and will be streamed live on Zoom (Meeting ID: 458 645 1704) and on the town YouTube channel, where past meeting recordings are also available.
For more information, call the Town of Shoshoni at (307) 876-2515.