If someone has a heart attack-- or breaks a leg-- in the Aspen area, there’s a small fleet of ambulances ready to pick them up. Even if the person is up a dirt road near Independence Pass or on top of Aspen Mountain. But there’s a key part of that access that’s becoming a big problem. And the ambulance district is asking for a half million dollar budget increase to pay for it.
Gabe Muething is Aspen’s Ambulance District Director. He’s showing me around the district’s main ambulance, known as Medic 94.
“Those of us who are old enough to have watched some of the old emergency shows years go, the ambulances looked like a hearse. But now it’s changed... You can see with medic 94 here we’re using a truck front end, and a truck chassis, rather than a van.”
Reporter: This and the three other Aspen ambulances are more more rugged and well equipped than in years past...
“The inside is obviously a little bit larger. We have taller ceilings, we have a little bit wider box. We have the ability to get to both sides of the patient…” fade down talking.
Keeping up with not only current standards, but also making sure Aspen has the best medical care possible. That all costs money, and the District is facing financial challenges. Improving and maintaining equipment is expensive. And, like most ambulance services, Aspen is getting reimbursed less for trips to the hospital…On top of that, the District’s building in Aspen is too small. The four newer ambulances are about a third bigger than older versions
“Currently we have about two inches space between the top of the ambulance and the main support beam of the building.”
Which makes for some extra careful snow removal during the winter, and…
“We have to leave one ambulance out, or find a home for it. In the past we’ve used a temporary tent space, that’s helped, but ultimately the bigger problem for us is to leave an ambulance outside, to leave it in the elements, a lot of medications that we carry, they’ll go bad if we don’t temperature control them.”
So in this fall’s election, the Aspen Ambulance District is asking for an increase in property taxes that adds up to more than a half million dollars. That would mostly fund construction of a new building-- or finding another place that could work.
County Commissioner Rachel Richards is on the ambulance board. She hopes to convince voters to approve the measure.
“I think the complexity of some of what we deal with has increased, as well as the complexity of the equipment.”
Richards, who is up for re-election in an uncontested race, points out Aspen has a unique range of people who can get hurt.
“We know we have great outdoor enthusiasts who are biking up and down the passes at high speeds, and out rock climbing and any number of activities, we have so many sporting events in town, and we also are dealing with an aging population in this community.”
So far there hasn’t been formal opposition. Last fall voters in the Carbondale Rural and Fire District turned down a property tax increase-- and much of that would have gone to ambulance services there. Again, Gabe Muething.
“We certainly have to look at that. That being said, I feel like over the past five years we have really embarked on this journey to become much more lean, much more efficient.”
Muething says the District has done everything it can to streamline operations and equipment in-house, and it’s been more than thirty years since the District has asked for more money.
Aspen’s ambulance measure was accidentally included on ballots for voters outside the district. Election officials say they’ll make sure to tally only the votes from District residents.
