Brigham City presents fire/EMS cost allocation plan; proposes municipal billing and $2,300 per‑call charge

Brigham City officials briefed the Manaway Town Council on a proposed approach to allocate and recover growing fire and ambulance costs, describing both a formulaic allocation and a possible per‑call municipal billing model.

Brigham City presenters said the department's expenses have risen sharply in recent years, driven by personnel and apparatus costs, and that revenue from ambulance billing covers only a portion of the department's costs. Using an AP Triton allocation formula (50% population, 25% service demand, 25% taxable value), presenters estimated Manaway's share of the non‑Brigham subsidy would be about $132,500 under a fully allocated model.

The presenters also described a draft billing concept that would send a municipal readiness/standby bill for responses in Manaway (in addition to patient billing). The per‑call figure discussed in the meeting was in the roughly $2,300 range. "If we send an ambulance or fire truck outside of Brigham City's corporate limits, we would send a bill to that entity's governing body," the presenter said, explaining the intention as a supplemental municipal charge for readiness and response. Brigham City said it had not adopted an ordinance and planned to consult other councils before moving forward.

Manaway council members raised several operational and policy questions: how ImageTrend dispatch reporting and ZIP‑code attribution determine whether a call is counted to Manaway or to unincorporated county areas; how canceled or partially responded calls would be billed; whether billing both the patient and a municipality constitutes double billing; and how disputes over jurisdiction would be arbitrated (Manaway asked whether the county had been consulted; Brigham City said those conversations remain to be completed). An exchange captured an objection from an unidentified council member: "That sounds like double billing and that doesn't sound legal."

Brigham City representatives said current automatic‑aid arrangements for fire had been altered (automatic aid termination was already in effect as of Sept. 1) while mutual‑aid and medical contracting would be honored through existing dates (Brigham City cited EMS arrangements running into 2027). Presenters emphasized that these proposals were the start of a negotiation process and invited Manaway to sit down to develop interlocal agreements that specify triggers, billing parameters and dispute resolution mechanisms.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: Brigham City will continue outreach to neighboring municipalities, managers will produce GIS‑based call attribution data to clarify where calls occurred, and both sides agreed to draft interlocal language that could be reviewed by councils and dispatch authorities before any ordinance or billing starts.