When the federal government hands out trillions of dollars in reaction to a pandemic's public health and economic impacts, perhaps it's entirely predictable it would be like chum in the waters in communities across the nation.
With millions of dollars either in hand or on its way, counties and cities face no shortage of people, agencies and organizations competing for the money. It's even more so when one considers the spending spree hasn't been limited to direct covid-19 impacts. That's where talk of jail expansions and parks projects come into the equation.
The frenzy also reflects the reality that, in most circumstances, local governments never fully fund all of their needs and/or wants. We can all be thankful for fiscal conservatism. While it might be nice to pay for everything, limiting the burden on taxpayers is a worthwhile goal, too.
But there are millions of federal dollars flowing into local governments as a result of Congress' response to covid-19 and the money will be spent. The question is whether it's going to be frittered away or spent wisely.
Washington County expects to get about $46 million in covid-related federal funding. And just the other day we heard a request for more than $1 million of it that seems to fit perfectly as a public health response to the challenges of a pandemic and the ongoing health care needs of the community.
Central EMS is the ambulance service that responds everywhere in Washington County except the areas covered by ambulances from the Springdale Fire Department. It's chief, Becky Stewart, approached county Quorum Court members with a $2.2 million request to add two fully equipped ambulances to the dozen it already operates. The figure would also cover installation of costly power-lift mechanisms in all the ambulances, eliminating the burden ambulance crews face of lifting patients on stretchers into the ambulance.
As Stewart noted, Americans in general aren't getting any thinner, so such lifting assists are important to the health of ambulance crews and actually serve as a helpful incentive to keep crews from giving up the job.
About 60 percent of the full $2.2 million cost would be covered by the county, while cities served by the ambulance system will be asked to cover the rest.
Stewart reported that Central EMS responded to 220,000 calls last year. So, when we hear of people on the front lines -- like firefighters, police, nurses and doctors -- we can't forget these critically important public servants who are among the first to care for Washington County residents in moments of crisis.
It's hard to imagine a request that's more directly in tune with the public health elements of the covid-19 funding coming from the federal government. Making such an investment, using federal funding, seems like a no-brainer.
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What’s the point?
Investing in the local ambulance service is a great use of federal money being allocated locally.