[Anonymous]

Don’t most fire department charge for medical transport and ambulance fees? Jefferson County EMS does charge fees. The truth is I thought LCFR already did charge some of these fees. The fire department is now a transporting agency which means instead of waiting for Jefferson County EMS to get their ambulance here from Madras to take people to the hospital our ambulance now transports to the hospital which is less expensive than having Jefferson County EMS respond all the way from Madras. Saves a lot of time on getting a patient to the hospital but more expensive for the district. I support the ambulance fees. I’d rather have my health insurance pay our department to transport me than Jefferson County EMS driving 40 minutes longer to get here then pay them with their additional fees and mileage costs.

The $25 burn permits fee caught me off guard since I still possess a “lifetime” burn permit I was given a few years ago by the fire chief. I’m not a big fan to have a permit to burn my burn barrel. I was told the rationale for the $25 burn permit fee was to add to the kitty which helps supplment the cost of paying interns in the summer to come and live here during the high fire danger. I saw there were two or three interns helping the district last year. The fire district told me the with the aging demographics of the “full time” LOA people it is hard to get fire fighters most just can’t physically fight fires anymore. They don’t have it in the budget to pay for these firefighters. The district needs some young healthy fire fighters. I did call and ask and got some answers. I suggest people with questions either call or attend the meeting on Tuesday.