In its third meeting since its inception in March 2024, the City of Delta Junction’s Ambulance Service Community Advisory Committee came together Tuesday evening to again confer on how to address the EMS crisis in the community.
Attending were Dean Jazzo, local business owner; Sherry Decker, local business owner; Cody White, Rural Alaska Emergency Services and local business owner; Dr. Sean Richardson, Interior Alaska Medical Clinic; Joe Rice, Lockheed Martin; Pamela Rawson, City of Delta Junction; and Pamela Goode, Deltana Community Corporation. Lauren Morton was absent, and it was announced that John Sloan resigned from the committee.
The current ambulance service is advanced life support, or ALS. Volunteer ambulance models tend to operate on a basic life support, or BLS, level. Most committee members appeared to agree that having an ALS service is desirable. The issue is how to fund it.
Joining the group for the meeting were Todd McDowell, State of Alaska EMS systems manager; Tod Chambers, assistant manager of operations and training for City of North Pole Fire Department; and Scott Learned, fire chief at Steese Volunteer Fire Department in Fairbanks.
McDowell presented new data collected by the state on Delta Junction’s use of its existing ambulance service from October 2022-March 2024.
The vast majority of transports were to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Of those transports, 65 (13%) were considered critical, while 222 (45%) were emergent. Lower acuity level calls were 197 (39%). The remaining 3% were deceased or not reported.
The majority of calls happened between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The reason for calls was largely traumatic injury (78 calls) and abdominal pain/problems (51 calls).
“Were calls from residents or travelers?” queried Sean Richardson. “Is there any way to tell is there’s a difference between call volumes by season?”
McDowell answered that they are working through the reports to determine that.
It was noted that critical and emergent calls would require ALS response, and that the fact that most calls happened during the day restricted the ability of a volunteer force to cover them.
“The length of transport time adds to the difficulty level,” Richardson commented.
“Even a minor thing can become a major thing in the transport time with only BLS,” noted Scott Learned with Steese Volunteer Fire Department.
A volunteer force may not be feasible in the area due to various factors.
“We’re a combination department in North Pole,” said Tod Chambers. “The volunteers that we have – we have two active that respond at any time – they are scheduled.
“It’s just not a workable solution in our area,” Chambers concluded.
Insurance is also a potential barrier to volunteer organizations.
Amber White with Delta Medical Transport said they can’t get insurance to allow volunteers on the trucks.
Agnew::Beck facilitator Blair Schoenborn pointed out that volunteers are not free when it gets right down to it, and it’s become harder to keep volunteers. Time of day of the majority of calls is challenging for volunteers whose employer doesn’t support them leaving their job, or they are hourly and would lose a day of work.
Currently, the City of Delta Junction budget does not have a line item for EMS beyond the increase in fees at the landfill, which would raise an anticipated additional $275,000 annually.
Community contributions so far consist of O Morley’s fuel station’s pledge of 2¢ per gallon of fuel sold and Cookie Nook’s pledge of $1 per cookie sold.
Corporate donations are on the table, but none have been secured yet.
Deltana Community Corporation has set aside $47,500 that would be donated to a nonprofit and matched by community donations, bringing the potential of that donation to $97,000.
Committee member Cody White, representing nonprofit organization Rural Alaska Emergency Services, noted that his organization’s website is active and has a donation button. The website address is www.emsalaska.org, where people can donate to the nonprofit which has the stated sole goal of funding life-saving emergency services to Alaskan rural communities. White did not mention if any donations have been received yet.
In the last few minutes of the meeting’s allotted time period, facilitators Shelly Wade and Schoenborn displayed a spreadsheet that has some potential sources of income for EMS. Potential bed and alcohol taxes received a less-than-enthusiastic response from committee members. Community contributions were noted, and corporate donations were discussed.
In closing, committee members had final comments.
Sherry Decker, local business owner: “We need to solicit larger corporations that come here to do business.”
Joe Rich, Lockheed Martin: Get closer to the congressional delegation to see what they can do.
Sean Richardson, Interior Alaska Medical Center physician: “I’m not in favor of tax. Who is? But ….”
Pamela Rawson, Delta Junction City Council: “Delta’s changing. It’s growing. There’s going to have to be some changes. We’ve got to step up and pay.”
Cody White, Rural Alaska Emergency Services: “That corporate thing is not sustainable for the future. There’s got to be something we can do that’s going to be fiscally sustainable for the future.”
The group’s next meeting has not yet been set but is planned for July.
