The city’s schedule of fees and charges for services states a $400 fee will be charged for every accident that requires emergency response, payable by the owner of the vehicle that caused the accident.
The resolution rectifies a situation in which the owner of a car involved in an accident inside city limits was billed $200 if emergency fire equipment responded to the scene. This fee was charged regardless of whether the owner was the driver of the car at the time of the accident, but was not charged to city residents, even if that resident had caused the accident.
Since its inception in 2008 the fee has proved to be wildly unpopular and difficult to enforce. Fire department employees spent many fruitless hours dealing with the irate public and trying to track down vehicle owners. A resolution written by Mayor Jerry Cleworth was introduced last month, proposing to drop the $200 fee while raising the city ambulance call fees $50. This would have meant an ambulance call providing basic life support services would increase from $800 to $850, and an advanced life support call would increase to $1,050, from $1,000.
The proposed resolution was postponed so modifications could be made to it after some council members expressed concern about the ambulance fee increase. An amendment to keep the ambulance call fees as they stand, at $800 and $1,000 respectively, was added.
Contact Dorothy Chomicz at 459-7590.
Furthermore if you think these rates are high (which they are, anchorages 911 charges half of this), don't ever get air medevaced. A transport to Anchorage can cost around $40,000.
Ridiculous!!!
They try to say that private companys cant make a living here, why not let them try???
$800 to $1000 is enough to stop many people from calling an ambulance. Not everyone has insurance to pay such high fees. Lives may be lost because people cannot afford the fee and decide to take their chances.