Proposed Wagoner County Sales Tax Change Leaves People Divided

Some people in Wagoner County are upset the county commissioners want to cut the budget of every fire department in the county in order to start and fund an ambulance service.

The cut would come in one of eight proposed sales tax issues that will be on the ballot in March.

The departments say taking away half of their funding would hurt the service they provide to rural areas in Wagoner County. 

Everyone agrees Wagoner County needs an ambulance service, and service should be improved across the county, but firefighters say taking away funds their departments rely on would hurt their ability to maintain equipment, attend training, or recruit and retain firefighters.

On Monday night, firefighters asked County Commissioner Christina Edwards about what data supports the cut.

Edwards, who supports the ballot measure, was unable to answer the question. 

The community also asked County Commissioner Tim Kelly, who also supports the proposal, the same question in a separate meeting. 

His response was, “I get it. That’s all you need to know.”

Kelly was asked if he could provide the statistics and he said he could if he wanted to.

The county says the decision for the proposal was because recent EMS calls exceeded one hour in some cases, but the county also says they haven’t done any studies to substantiate the claims. 

“I’m not aware of any studies recently,” Wagoner County Engineer Rachael Cooper said. “The commissioner did mention a study in 2010 conducted by OSU regarding the need for ambulance and that five different locations would benefit the county.”

“Recently, it was just an evaluation of the budget and then an evaluation of current call data,” she continued. 

Another concern firefighters have is the county acknowledges never consulting any of the fire departments before proposing the idea. 

“There are already ambulances running on the streets right now, and we could have come up with many other solutions other than taking our money that could have put more ambulances on the street,” Training Officer Paul Summers with the Stone Bluff Fire Department said. 

The county says it does not have a set plan for how the ambulance service would run or who would manage it. 

The proposal will go before voters on March 5.