Published Jan. 9 in the Nicholas Countian

Nicholas County reduces employee's hours in attempt to cut overall operating costs

NICHOLAS COUNTIAN

CARLISLE — The northern Kentucky contract operators of the Nicholas County Ambulance Service have indicated that the service is operating at a loss and that they are taking cost-cutting measures as a result. Some of the service’s employees have recently seen a significant reduction in the number of hours they are authorized to work each week, and some reportedly have seen their weekly hours reduced to zero.

Judge Executive Larry Tincher spoke with The Nicholas Countian & Carlisle Mercury earlier this week and told the newspaper that he had scheduled a meeting with the director of the ambulance service for Thursday afternoon (after this week’s edition of the newspaper had gone to press) to discuss the situation and the implications of reduced emergency services. He said he had asked County Attorney Dawn Curran Letcher and County Treasurer Wanda Dotson to attend the meeting as well, along with the judge executive of Robert-son County, which is also provided ambulance service by the company under contract.

Tincher said he was told by the ambulance service director that it has lost approximately $90,000 since taking over the service in the middle of 2001 and that something had to be done. Two ways to reduce costs are to reduce personnel hour and reduce the number of ambulance crews on duty and, according to the judge executive, the operators have indicated that both are necessary.

Judge Executive Tincher said he was going to go into the Thursday afternoon meeting with the understanding that the company signed a binding contract to provide adequate emergency ambulance service to the community and he expects it to be honored. A report on the meeting and the future of emergency ambulance service in Nicholas County and Robertson County will be a front page item in next week’s edition of the community’s newspaper.

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