Ambulance Service in Big Sur

Received this from Kirk Gafill today asking me to spread the word. This is the last non-Jade posting until after the Festival, though, goddess willing. Tomorrow, posting live from the Festival, if all goes well! See you there. Stop by the Main Information Booth and say “hi.” BigSurKate

What: Critical Meeting of Monterey County Board of Supervisors to hear presentation of Countywide Ambulance Contract Request For Proposal
When: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Where: Board of Supervisors Chambers at 168 West Alisal Street in Salinas

At this meeting, the Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) will be recommending to the Board of Supervisors a tentative winner of the contract to provide countywide ambulance service and the EMS Agency will then be requesting authority from the Board of Supervisors to negotiate the details of the contract with this ambulance provider.

This is the critical moment when we need to have the Board of Supervisors give the EMS Agency the authority to negotiate for a continuation of current service levels, if not then Big Sur’s service levels will be split out into a variety of options to be bid upon separately. Should this occur, our community, uniquely in the entire County, will be required to lobby the Board to provide ambulance service to our area at a cost of many hundreds of thousands of dollars. A most daunting task, which would pit our community’s interests against those of other communities and county departments requesting funding for their own agendas and needs.

The EMS Agency is on record as considering it acceptable to have ambulances dispatched from the Monterey Peninsula, adding one to two hours to response time to future ambulance calls. This is simply unacceptable and would take us back to service levels last seen 50 years ago.

It is of the utmost importance that our community show up at this Board of Supervisors meeting in person. Martha Karstens, Chief of the Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade, will coordinate several speakers to address the key concerns. It is not necessary, nor desirable to have most people speak to the issue due to limited time available on the agenda, but it is of the utmost value to have a show of community support by residents being present and showing their hands in support of this issue.

Personal participation is needed and now! Please make every effort to attend this meeting and support our community’s efforts to ensure that we continue to have a 24 hour a day/7 day a week, Advanced Life Support Ambulance, located in Big Sur.

Only 40 residents showed up at the community meeting at the Big Sur Lodge last month, our community can and must do better than that if we wish to impress upon the Board of Supervisors the value we attach to a locally based ambulance.

Please pass the word.

Thank you,

Kirk Gafill
President – Big Sur Chamber of Commerce