Fremont County ambulance services to be taken over by county if no entity steps forward

FREMONT COUNTY, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) -

As of now, no one has submitted a proposal to provide ambulance services in Fremont County even though the deadline was previously extended. On July 1st, the contract will expire with the current providing entity, AMR.

Chairman of the Fremont County Commissioners, Travis Becker stated, “The county is proceeding to take over and run the services. There are some folks that are kind of kicking the tires and still checking things out. We have to move forward, we don’t have time to be messing around with this, so we’ve got to get going with it and proceed as if we are going to take it over.”

Fremont County previously ran the ambulance for about 40 years, when the expenses became too steep to continue. Five years ago the county put the services out for bid for several reasons. Chairman Becker said a benefit of having a third party provide the services is that the county does not specialize in running a health care system.

Another benefit is that county funds wouldn’t have to be drained to maintain the service. Becker added that when the county owned the ambulance services, $680,000 had to be taken from the general fund to provide the resource. Fremont County currently owns all the assets and will continue to.

Chairman Becker emphasized, “We have to have it. Fremont County needs an ambulance service without a doubt. Can we afford it on our own as a county? No. We’ve been having conversations with mayors around the county. The conversation is just starting to get ramped up, but again, we’re not about to leave the county without an ambulance service. We’ve got to do something.”

The chairman says if there are any firm proposals, they will be made public.

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