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The Windsor Ambulance District Board of Directors is continuing to chip away at the district’s debt, including paying employees.
The board approved paying three of the six pay periods owed to six WAD employees during its meeting last week, totaling $9,468.52, which does not include any employee advances from 2014 that had not been paid back.
Chairman Steve Galloway said they hope to pay the other three pay periods by the end of the year, which totals $13,508.52. He added that they were able to finally consider this issue because the board received the last of its payments from collections of previously unbilled ambulance runs.
“We’re current with all of our utilities now and we are getting ready here in a few days to winterize the building and shut the building down,” Galloway said Monday. “We’re leaving the electricity on because we need to have access to records because we do have people inquiring about different medical care that may have been given to people being transported.
“… We still have the federal IRS and the state taxes and we still have an amount we owe on the two (ambulance) units.”
Galloway said WAD owes about $9,000 to UMB for its nonfunctional unit, and about $50,000 to an out-of-state lending company for the unit that was repossessed.
During the October meeting, the board discussed having Gregg Smith Ford inspect its working ambulance, but according to the November meeting minutes, the company was “unable to complete an inspection on the ambulance, due to too many after market parts, and reported that it would not pass emissions inspection.”
According to the meeting minutes, discussion of the 2016 budget was tabled until the December meeting when the board will have more information from the IRS regarding a payment plan. WAD owes the IRS $178,773.22 and owes $32,431.48 in taxes to the State of Missouri.
The meeting minutes state the board is in agreement to sell off all liquid assets to pay off as much debt as possible.
In addition to whittling down the district’s debt, the board is also looking into possible ways to serve Windsor residents with an ambulance service.
“We’re in a discovery mode with Pettis County (Ambulance District). We are looking at options with Pettis County and Cole Camp (Ambulance District),” Galloway said. “We don’t know, we’re still far away from there, knowing what our options are.
“One of our biggest challenges we have in getting service back to our community is the fact that our building is not suitable for occupation of people. We’re desperately trying to find options for housing a service in Windsor. At this point we haven’t located a place. We’re working on that, trying to come up with some plans for the IRS and state taxes and finalize paying the employees. We still have a lot on our plate.”
Members of the WAD board will attend the PCAD meeting next week to discuss the possibility of working with PCAD to restore ambulance service to the Windsor area.
“Pettis County will require a building with a heated garage which can house ambulance personnel,” the WAD meeting minutes state. “The Board is determined to come up with some options to present to Pettis County.”