Two out of three

After many months of discussion, the Sundance City Council has officially handed over its two ambulances to Crook County Medical Services District (CCMSD) and entered into a rental agreement that will allow (CCMSD) to continue storing them in a city building.

The issue was temporarily tabled during the COVID-19 crisis but has now been picked back up, with Chairman Mark Erickson attending last week’s council meeting because “we want to put all this to bed”.

“First and foremost, we’ve got to have a place to store them,” he said.

Mayor Paul Brooks responded that the council is prepared to do this for $425 per month, which is the actual cost of maintaining and providing utilities to the storage space.

“That part I think we’re golden, all it’s going to take is council action to enter into an agreement,” he said; council members expressed that they were comfortable to do so.

It was also agreed, thanks to input from Kara Ellsbury, attorney for the CCMSD Board of Trustees, that the city is able to donate the ambulances to the district.

Discussion was also held over the $35,000 currently held in the city’s accounts as an ambulance fund.

“It’s not really our money, it’s passed through to us from the county commissioners to operate an ambulance business,” elaborated Brooks.

Said Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz, this has been discussed at previous meetings with the board. CCMSD had requested the $35,000 be passed over to the district once it took responsibility for the ambulances so that it could be used for matching funds when acquiring a new ambulance, Lenz said.

City Attorney Mark Hughes, however, expressed concern about this, stating that there has not been a motion or action in the past to point towards this decision. The council would be giving away public funds, he said.

“Money is considered public property, and probably we can give it to CCMSD based on all the research we did,” Hughes said. However, he stated that there’s a potentially “worrisome” issue if the district hires someone to oversee the ambulances and the money goes to them, which “subverts the intent of the parties and is something I’m not sure we want to do.”

To allow further research and discussion on the issue, Council Member Joe Wilson made a friendly amendment to the motion on the floor. The motion was then passed to donate the ambulances to the district and enter into a rental agreement for their storage.