Funding for Joint EMS discussed at Fiscal Court

Published 12:30 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2025

At a recent Joint EMS Committee meeting, questions surrounding whether or not to implement a third party ambulance service in Clark County were raised. 

While nothing is definitive, the recurring matter was brought up at the most recent Clark County Fiscal Court meeting as well. 

Specifically, after explaining relevant actions taken regarding a Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo loan) and funding for the Clark County Detention Center, Clark County Judge-Executive Les Yates also stated that he felt there might be a way to fund county EMS services for the next year. 

“My thought was…if we can come up with enough money to fund this for a year, that’ll give…the city [and] the county all the time they need to discuss what they want to do in the future,” he said. “For right now, I just want to calm things down and get us back in business. So, I believe that somewhere we could come up with…roughly another $43,000.” 

Magistrate Chris Davis responded. 

“I certainly am in favor of us paying whatever we owe under the program for operating,” he said. “However, there’s still going to have to be a lot of discussion, understanding, and transparency [about] what’s falling under EMS expenses.”  

Magistrate Ernest Pasley expressed a desire to understand further how the court was met with current financial conditions. 

“It’s just a lot to take in…and if you can’t get records, then you can’t understand it,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re not getting those records.” 

Magistrate Robert Blanton also spoke, and it was confirmed that a large part of the previous Joint EMS Committee centered around understanding how the Court came to its current budget amount. 

However, Blanton also advised against the handling of the most recent Joint EMS Committee meeting. 

“To me, the whole thing got screwed up when we had Cross [Medical Response] come out and make a proposal. That was totally out of line [and] should have never happened. It made everybody look bad,” he said. “We should address fixing the problem, how we’re going to play our part, and then fix the problem after that.” 

Magistrate Steve Craycraft spoke. 

“I’d like for everybody who [is] here or listening [to know] that none of the magistrates sitting up here has discussed privatizing EMS…and none of us want to downgrade our service,” he said. “We all understand the difference between the advanced life support and basic.” 

No official action was taken. 

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Davis said, adding that he hopes to see fellow Fiscal Court members and others at the next Joint EMS Committee meeting.