Medic pensions put Peabody station in limbo
Staff writer
A proposed Peabody ambulance station remains in limbo as county commissioners wrestle with how to pay for and staff it.
County administrator Tina Spencer reduced her recommendation for 2027 spending on ambulance personnel because the county is unlikely to have the Peabody station operating next year.
Building and staffing a station, along with providing costly Police and Fire retirement benefits, all would have to be funded, Spencer said Tuesday.
“It can be difficult to recruit without that retirement that some other agencies have,” she said.
In Marion County, only Marion police are covered by the plan. However, in arguing recently to raise police salaries, city officials contended that the more generous pension would be another recruitment lure.
The county has been considering moving ambulance and sheriff’s employees to the plan, which requires employers to contribute 25% of employees’ pay instead of the 9% required under standard state retirement programs. An estimated $287,000 additional cost for Police and Fire pensions was left out of the county’s revenue-neutral budget draft.
Commissioners appeared Monday to want to determine how to pay for Police and Fire pensions before committing to a building they might not be able to staff, Spencer said.
Conceptual plans for the station were completed last year.
The county owns land in the area, but Spencer said she did not know whether the parcel would be used for the station.
“Where it stands is it’s kind of in limbo at the moment,” she said.
The issue resurfaced Monday after a Peabody city council member asked commissioners for an update.
Commissioners discussed an ambulance response time of about 20 minutes to Peabody and difficulty adding a station without enough employees to staff it.
The proposed ambulance budget carries forward $380,000 set aside this year for ambulance replacement and adds $100,000 toward the next replacement.
One of the county’s six ambulances is scheduled for replacement, Spencer said. Only two ambulances tend to be staffed by full-time employees at any one time.
Specifications are being reviewed, but the county does not know when an ambulance would be ordered, delivered or paid for.
The county’s last ambulance took more than two years to arrive.
The new ambulance will replace an existing ambulance rather than expand the fleet. Which one will be replaced will depend on age, mileage, and mechanical condition.
Road and bridge
In other budget discussions Monday, commissioners were told road and bridge revenue in 2025 included a one-time $752,451 disaster reimbursement from the federal government. The county also is receiving a $130,000 bridge damage settlement this year. Neither revenue source will necessarily be available in the coming year.
However, the county changed how it accounts for state motor fuel tax designated for roads. Money will now go directly into the a road fund instead of first passing through the general fund for other departments.
The change will eliminate accounting “gymnastics” and makes spending easier to track, Spencer said.
Another expense is looming because of new requirements for weight-limit signs at bridges.
Signs will have to be placed at intersections approaching affected bridges in addition to signs already at the bridges. The change could mean four signs instead of two for affected bridges.
No additional money for signs is being proposed in the 2027 budget.
Spencer said Tuesday that the county still did not know how many signs would be needed or what they would cost.
She has been told counties will have two years to comply but has not seen the deadline in writing.
Health department
Commissioners face a tradeoff between property taxes and state grant money in the health department budget.
The county levied $267,000 for the department last year after uncertainty over grant funding.
Spencer reduced the proposed levy by $100,000 to help reach revenue neutrality, but doing so would make the department ineligible for roughly $20,000 in state grant money for one year.
The proposed act still could change.
Commissioners will continue budget work next week. A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14.
Other business
Commissioners accepted the only bid received, $47,600, for guardrail construction on Clover and Camp Rds. The bid request had been sent to four vendors.
They also authorized seeking proposals by Sept. 25 for county auditing services and approved the Central Kansas Regional Solid Waste Authority’s five-year management plan covering Harvey, Marion and McPherson counties.
Commissioners were told that the county appraiser’s office received a perfect score on its annual state compliance review.
Spencer said Tuesday that she could not remember the office previously receiving a perfect score and said scores generally had been between 90% and 97%.