Marion County delays decision on air ambulance insurance

photo Don Adkins
Arkansas-Ole Miss Live Blog

JASPER, Tenn. -- Marion County leaders have delayed a decision on purchasing a one-year membership in the AirMedCare Network that would cover the costs of air ambulance flights inside the county for all of its residents.

Officials estimate the program would cost about $127,000 per year.

At the November meeting of the Marion County Commission, Don Adkins, chairman of the board's finance committee, said that group met on the proposal recently, but decided to table the discussion until County Mayor David Jackson has his quarterly meeting with city mayors in January.

"We'll see if there's any interest from the local cities to participate in the overall expense of that program," he said.

Jasper Mayor Paul Evans has expressed some interest in doing that, Adkins said.

Commission Chairman Gene Hargis said there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the deal, and those need to be explored before any decision is made.

"If the cities say, 'We want to do this,' then you get into the meat of the issue and hash stuff out," he said.

Commissioner Tommy Thompson said he has some big problems with the proposed membership program.

"We are wanting to take on a $127,000 new program, but we've got a service that's already provided in this county by the volunteer fire departments," he said. "We can't help them out with $12,000 or $14,000 a year."

Hargis said no other commissioners have said whether they are for or against the program.

"I think it's our job as commissioners to at least discuss it and explore the issue," he said.

The board also voted unanimously to decline a state-funded waste tire grant for $6,900.

Jackson said the grant would pay $1 per tire for disposal, which would completely cover that expense.

After a recent meeting with county landfill supervisor Mark Payne and Thompson about the grant, Jackson recommended the board reject the offer.

"They feel like this would not pay for itself and [still] meet Tennessee state requirements," he said.

Thompson said the county always gets "gypped" on money coming back from the state for similar programs.

"I'm putting that a little nicer than I did the last time [this was discussed]," he said.

The county has been handling tire disposal on its own for two years, Thompson said, and the landfill is earning enough revenue to do that and still break even.

In the past, he said, the county has lost between $8,000 and $20,000 annually by "fooling with this state program."

Out of the $1.35 in state taxes that everyone pays on a new tire, 10 cents go back to the dealer for paperwork administration, Thompson said. The remaining $1.25 goes to the state, and eventually 73 cents of it go to the landfill to help cover disposal costs.

"We feel like if we take this [state] money, we're going to open up a can of worms, and there's no telling what the state is going to ask of us," Thompson said. "I think we need to forget the $6,900 and let us handle it the way we're handling it."

Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him atryanlewis34@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events