BRANSON WEST, Mo. — On April 2, Stone County voters will decide if an ambulance district should be created. That district would be paid for by a sales tax increase of one-half of a percent.
Stone County Emergency Management got together enough petition signatures last year to get the measure on the ballot next week.
“We ended up with about 35 percent to 40 percent more signatures than we actually needed in order to get it on the ballot,” Stone County Emergency Management Director Thomas Martin said.
Martin hopes those numbers will translate into yes votes come Tuesday.
“This is an opportunity for every voter in Stone County to have the opportunity to try to save a life, because it’s really that critical,” Martin said. “We have great ambulances right now. The crews do a fabulous job. It’s nothing against any of them. But we just need more ambulances and we need to be able to to maintain what we have, if not improve.”
The lack of an ambulance district has been a hot-button issue in the county for years. Right now, Martin said Stone County is one of the few in the state that is not an ambulance district. The county relies on ambulances from Cox and Mercy Hospital.
The full article is available at ozarksfirst.com.
(Story by Sydney Moran, ozarksfirst.com)
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