City Council meets; discusses ambulance subscriptions

The Blackwell City Council held its first meeting of 2025 last Thursday evening, honoring Jim Hoos and Lauran Trevizo. 

The meeting began with City Manager Jerry Wieland recognizing Hoos for his 10 years of service to Blackwell’s Water & Wastewater departments as Hoos prepares to depart the city.

“It’s hard to put into words what you’ve done for the City of Blackwell,” said City Manager Wieland to Hoos. 

“We would like to thank you for your 10 years of dedicated service to the community.” 

Following Hoos’s recognition, Deputy City Clerk Lauran Trevizo was honored as the Employee of the Month. 

“I have the pleasure of working with Mrs. Trevizo every day,” said Wieland, “your leadership and professionalism are extremely admirable and your take-over of the utility office during our shortage has been remarkable. We can’t thank you enough.” 

The council then heard the department head reports before moving onto business matters. 

The first item of business was clarifying that customers with solar installations are credited 3.6 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity placed back onto the City’s electrical grid. 

Next, the Council heard from Fire Chief Cory Hanebrink on the increase of ambulance rates in response to Governor Stitt’s recently approved House Bill 2872

Oklahoma House Bill 2872, known as the "Out-of-Network Ambulance Service Provider Act," establishes minimum reimbursement rates for out-of-network ambulance services. The legislation sets guidelines for billing, payments, and related processes to address high costs associated with out-of-network ground ambulance transports.

“The bill now states insurance companies have to pay 325% of what Medicare pays,” explained Hanebrink, “so we are asking to increase the rates because if our rates are lower than the bill, insurance pays less.” 

With Hanebrink present, the next item was a discussion item regarding an ambulance subscription service within the City of Blackwell. 

The proposal would be a subscription fee in the form of a $5 monthly charge on a resident’s electrical bill which would generate an estimated $192,000. 

“That will do several things for us,” said Hanebrink, “it’ll allow us to hire 3 more personnel, giving us 7-man shifts as opposed to the 4-man shifts we have now.” 

Hanebrink stated that the 4-man shifts now make it difficult for the Blackwell Fire & EMS to juggle transfers and in-town emergencies. 

With a 7-man shift, Hanebrink said it would make it possible for Blackwell to provide better emergency services as needed. 

This was a discussion and no action was taken, the item will be open to public comment currently scheduled for the next meeting of the Blackwell City Council which will be on January 16 at 6 p.m. at the Blackwell City Hall.