Roswell city staff and fire officials told the City Council on July 10 that they have a plan and funding in place to stand up a municipal ambulance service and will move next through finance and public-safety committees toward procurement.

The plan’s authors said the city has been holding a dedicated public-safety fund for the effort and that the account balance is sufficient to start buying ambulances and equipment. “Your money’s there. I think we’re ready to take it on,” said Mr. Cole, a city staff member introducing the proposal.

Why it matters: Councilors and fire leaders said a city-run service would reduce reliance on a private contractor that has sought large increases to its stipend in recent years and could improve local control over staffing and service levels. The department’s packet projects a multi-year staffing and revenue plan that, in the presentation’s model, reaches positive operating results after the initial investment years.

Inverted-pyramid details: Chief Bunch, who led the transition planning, summarized recent and comparable market behavior: “In 2022 AMR requested to raise their stipend from 165,000 annually to 2,400,000…this also happened in other locations across New Mexico.” The proposed operations model described by the chief would keep current fire staffing intact while hiring additional paramedics and EMTs for ambulance-only crews. An implementation timeline in the packet anticipates ordering ambulances, completing Department of Transportation paperwork and starting service as soon as vehicles and staffing are in place; presenters estimated vehicle availability from vendors as the practical pacing constraint.

Finances and oversight: The presenters said the public-safety fund balance available for the program is $8,260,000. A professional billing firm supplied revenue projections used in the packet; presenters told councilors the projections show the service moving toward self-sufficiency in later years while remaining, by their model, less costly than the city’s current private-provider arrangement over time. City staff told council the next formal steps are committee briefings on public safety and finance and a return to the council to authorize procurement and begin hiring.

Dissent, risk and follow-up: Council members pressed on timeline, liability and long-term funding. City attorneys and staff said municipal operation may reduce certain legal exposure because claims against a city are subject to the New Mexico Tort Claims Act and local suits would be filed in Chaves County; staff said additional insurance would be obtained and expected costs were built into projections. Councilor discussion also raised the prospect of reducing the tax that originally seeded the fund once the service became self-sustaining.

Ending: City staff will present the plan to the public-safety and finance committees and return to council for procurement authorization and staffing approvals before ambulances are ordered. Presenters said they would share more detailed year-by-year financials at the committee stage.