Commissioners warn Fort Leavenworth: county ambulance subsidy unsustainable, April 1 deadline set
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Summary
Leavenworth County officials said providing ambulance service to Fort Leavenworth runs about $2,000,000 a year in net cost and have given the base until April 1 to propose a plan for cost sharing; commissioners discussed sending registered letters to military leadership and federal representatives if needed.
Leavenworth County officials told the commission that the county’s emergency medical services currently operate at an annual deficit of roughly $2,000,000, in part because Fort Leavenworth does not pay property taxes to support local services.
Administrators said the county has asked the fort for three years to help cover costs. “We can no longer provide free ambulance service,” an administrator said, noting staff obtained sample agreements from other Army installations that pay a fee to local EMS providers and shared those examples with Fort Leavenworth. The county said base staff are conducting due diligence on whether it is cheaper for the fort to pay the county or provide its own service.
Commissioners set an April 1 deadline for the fort to provide a concrete plan and discussed creating a formal paper trail by sending registered letters up the chain of command and notifying Kansas’ congressional delegation if the fort does not act. “We’ve granted two extensions already; there won’t be another extension,” one commissioner said.
Next steps: the county will continue negotiations and indicated it may escalate the issue with formal notices to military leadership and state and federal elected officials if the fort does not present a payment plan by the April 1 deadline. The board emphasized the priority is to ensure uninterrupted ambulance coverage for the base and surrounding county residents.