Christine Smith, Chair

Debbie P. Donehey, Vice-Chair

Garrey W. Curry, Jr., Ronald L. Frazier
County Administrator I. Christopher Parrish
Kier A. Whitson

RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
3 Library Road - P.O. Box 519
Washington, Virginia 22747-0519
Phone: (540) 675-5330 Fax: (540) 675-5331
www.rappahannockcountyva.gov

MEMORANDUM

To: Harold Beebout, President, Rappahannock County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Assoc.
Rappahannock County Fire/Rescue Company Chiefs
Rappahannock County Fire/Rescue Company Board Presidents
Cc: Board of Supervisors
From: Garrey W. Curry, Jr., P.E., County Administrator
Date: December 11, 2020
Re: Augmenting Volunteer Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Providers

The Public Safety Committee (PSC) received the Rappahannock County Vol. Fire & Rescue Association
(Association) letter dated February 18, 2020, which advocated that local government funding be built into
the fiscal year 2021 budget and suggested three potential options for supplementing volunteers with paid
staff. The PSC forwarded the recommendations to the Board of Supervisors who included $300,000 in the
FY2021 budget to support paid EMS (a mixture of general fund- and fire service fund/fire levy-dollars).

The Board and county staff appreciate the general recommendations put forward in the February 18, 2020
correspondence and recognize the work as a good starting point. Since that time, we understand that
additional work has continued by the Association, including reviewing four options to integrate paid EMS
providers. The options were shared with me and Chair Smith in advance of being presented to the
Association and appear to offer vastly different levels of service (incorporating as few as zero paid providers
and as many as 18 paid providers) with vastly different potential cost implications. The option suggesting
18 paid providers is founded on the Company 9 model, but does not align with the part-time employee costs
of that program (≈ $10,000/month). I suggest refinement be considered for this option to better align its
level of service with that which is required to meet the response requirements of the Fire and Rescue\EMS
Service Agreement (Agreement) or some other clearly established response capability (e.g. 24/7 ALS). In
short, if a single chase buggy located at one station is deemed to be a suitable option, it is not clear why 18
providers assigned to stations across the county would be considered a comparable alternate option. A
simple drive-time analysis indicates that EMS providers do not necessarily have to be guaranteed at all six
volunteer companies that provide EMS services, but that guaranteeing them at only one station is probably
inadequate. The addressees of this letter have the knowledge to carefully consider what is needed.

During the December 7, 2020 Board of Supervisors meeting, by unanimous consent, the Board requested
that I write to each of you to confirm that the Board remains poised and willing to provide the funding
necessary to augment volunteer EMS as required to assist the companies with meeting the response
requirements incorporated in paragraph # 7 of the Agreement (or a different standard as clearly stated basis).
The Board is grateful for the Association’s effort to “prepare a plan, schedule, and procedures for integrating
such career staff” in conjunction with the PSC as required by paragraph #46 of the Agreement, and would
like to further evaluate your proposal at the January 4, 2021 Board meeting with the intent to finalize plans
at the February 1, 2021 Board meeting, perhaps after consultation with the PSC.