(Audubon) Audubon Fire Department Chief Tyler Thygesen spoke with KSOM/KS95.7 News this week to clarify a few items in regards to fire service call fees.
Thygesen says they’ve looked into it for several months and the process would be similar to EMS billing that went into effect in 2016. “Charges that go through insurance companies just trying to regenerate some costs in fuel and equipment. It’s almost like a user fee. The taxation goes towards buying the equipment, but you have to have some way to upkeep it and the costs continues to rise.”
Audubon wouldn’t be alone in charging a service fee. LeMars is one community they’d be following the lead of. Thygesen describes one of the main advantages. “We’ve noticed a lot lately that vehicle fires have been up. We have a lot of those that are not residents of our fire district and they don’t leave a donation, they don’t get a fee. Some of those take a lot of time and are pretty extensive work.”
Thygsen says the EMS billing has been a big benefit. “We’ve been able to purchase a lot of extra equipment that we would have never been able to afford. That’s been a very good thing for our services.” He says, “We have a little bit more adequate supplies and tools. Our cardiac monitors are $35,000-$40,0000. We would have never been able to purchase those.”
The next step is for the Audubon City Council to approve a draft of an ordinance to allow the billing. There will be multiple readings necessary to make things official.
