Custer County Board of Commissioners (BOCC)
Afternoon Workshop
—July 17, 2019
WETMORE, Colo.
by Jackie Bubis
A s you have read in the Sentinel, the people in Wetmore are no longer covered by emergency medical care. For years the people below McKenzie Junction have been served by the Florence Fire Department. But that is no more, due to a lack of personnel.
The West Custer County Hospital District also does not, technically, service this area. At numerous meetings, Director Lisa Drew has attempted to lay this issue in the laps of the county commissioners, who have been wrestling with the issue. The new policy handed down from the hospital district is this: if a 911 call comes in from out of the “district”, then it is dispatch’s job to tone out a second ambulance crew. Until that second ambulance crew is at the ambulance quarters, the on-call crew will not respond.
In the early hours of July 5th, an extreme emergency happened to people driving down the mountain. At the junction in Wetmore, the driver pulled over for the passenger to be sick.
The passenger had a significant medical emergency right there in the middle of the road. The driver called 911. EMS was toned. Per protocol, Dispatch toned the 2nd crew. No one answered.
Dispatch, unable to get that 2nd ambulance crew and obligated to get a medical response, called Flight for Life. The on-call ambulance crew went back to sleep. Due to the quick thinking of the Dispatcher, the patient had medical care on scene, via Flight for Life, within thirty-nine minutes.
This call was referred to multiple times in the workshop held on the afternoon of the 17th in Wetmore to discuss EMS in the eastern portion of the county. Over forty people attended: residents from the Wetmore area, Sheriff Byerly and Undersheriff Barr and several other sheriff’s department employees, Lisa Drew and two board members from the clinic, and the County Health Nurse. Also in attendance were representatives from AMR, Rye Fire, and Southern Colorado RETAC.
The meeting began with a restatement of the history of EMS in the Wetmore area. For as long as folks can remember, Florence Fire covered up to the boundary of the West Custer County Hospital District. Recently they have quit this coverage. The clinic has said that it cannot cover outside its area either despite the fact that it has had a mutual aid agreement with Florence Fire and has covered that area when needed in the past. With Florence no longer able to cover that area, that mutual aid agreement is no longer applicable, according to Ms. Drew.
When asked directly about this recent call and why that the on-call ambulance crew refused to respond to this call, Ms. Drew stated, “because they (dispatch) was told to get a second crew.”

Ms. Drew’s contention is that “most of the time” a second crew can be found. When asked to define that, she responded with 85% of the time.
The statistics from the Sheriff’s Department tell a different story: in the last year, when a 2nd ambulance was toned, there was a 2nd ambulance available only 42% of the time.
If the Wetmore area people were to vote to be included
in the hospital district, only an additional $10 – 15K in tax revenue would be raised. Ms. Drew stated that she “can’t do it on 3.5 mills.” Despite this, the residents in the room would like it on the ballot.
But that doesn’t address the immediate issue. In an emotional appeal, Deputy Halpin stated that, if his family or friends need an ambulance tonight, they are just out of luck.
Mr. Flower brought up a 1989 agreement that states: “That the District agrees to pay all costs of operation and to provide ambulance service that has historically been provided by the Ambulance Corp, even though that service will be for areas outside the District.” Ms. Drew had never seen that document and it is unclear at this time if there has ever been a document that supersedes this coverage area.
When Mr. Flower asked the AMR Operations Manager
for Pueblo/Cañon City, Mike Lening, what would happen to the current ambulance corp employees if AMR took over the county, Ms. Drew said, “I thought we were here to discuss Wetmore and not the rest of the county.” She continued, “when I hear our employees are going to lost their jobs, I say ‘hell’ no, they aren’t going to lost their jobs.” She became very agitated at the very idea that coverage for the entire county was even being discussed. County Health Nurse Livengood interjected that Wetmore is part of Custer County, part of our community.
Ms. Drew continually reminded the group that she has known the AMR leaders for a long time, that she is a nurse, and that patients come first. But she also was adamant that “nobody loses their job, nobody loses their job.” She also stated that “Everybody deserves ALS (Advanced Life Support). I get it. I live in Cañon City. I drive through here twice a day. Do I wish we had that level of care? Absolutely.” The only ALS on the Custer County Ambulance is a paramedic who lives in Colorado Springs. Drew stated that this paramedic works more than two 24-hour shifts per month, but didn’t know how many more.
Mr. Printz asked Ms. Drew if the clinic were to receive an additional $14K (the estimate of revenue from the mill levy) from the county, would the clinic include the Wetmore area for the same level of service as is in the district. She stated that she thought her board would agree to that. (This, of course brings up many questions regarding using tax money to purchase this care from the clinic.)
Dispatch Supervisor Carrie Gallegos, with the Sheriff’s Office, asked Ms. Drew if the ambulance would respond under the mutual aid agreement that covers this area. Ms. Drew reminded her that there is no longer a mutual aid agreement.
This reporter brought the question back to the 1989 agreement and asked how the residents in the Wetmore area make that agreement enforceable? Attorney Smith stated to the board, “If you want to go to litigation, we could go into court and get an injunction ordering them to honor that agreement. We’d have to show that it’s an emergency.”
That could be accomplished in a few days and Mr. Smith could file it on behalf of the county since the county is party to that agreement. Mr. Canda spoke up and suggested that the same thing could be accomplished with an agreement signed by the clinic to cover this area. “We could do that this afternoon if we wanted to.”
Mr. Flower reminded the group that the BOCC has no authority over the clinic because they are a special tax district.
The end of the matter was that there were no decisions made, the people of the Wetmore area are not covered by EMS at this time (nor is anyone who lives within the hospital district as they drive between McKenzie Junction and the Fremont or Pueblo County line.)
There may be a workshop with the BOCC and West Custer Hospital District board in the near future.
Historical Note: Prior to the establishment of the mil levy strictly for the ambulance, and the lawsuit that led to the ambulance becoming a paid service, Custer County Ambulance was an all-volunteer service. For most of those years, the corp members were not paid to be on call but were paid a stipend for any runs they went on. When they were on call, they were required to be within 10 minutes of the ambulance quarters. During many of those years, a second ambulance was almost always available, and often a third crew could be engaged. A sample roster found that there were (at that time) 14 EMT-Basics, seven EMT-Intermediates (ALS), and one Paramedic (ALS) as well as two drivers.

Read last week’s report  HERE

West Custer County Hospital District responded to the article in this letter HERE