With the EMS contract between Iola and Allen County set to expire at the end of the year, the sides will soon head back to the bargaining table.
Iola City Council members announced Monday they are set to begin negotiations on a new contract to continue providing countywide ambulance services.
The announcement came in the form of a memorandum of understanding, stating the city will enter the negotiations with county commissioners in the coming weeks.
The contract had been set to expire in 2020, but was extended a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic scuttling opportunities to visit en masse for negotiations.
IN AN otherwise light meeting, which lasted less than 40 minutes, new City Administrator Matt Rehder announced Iola will not apply for an emergency loan from the state to help pay its utility bill.
The loan funding was approved by state lawmakers last week to help those communities unable to cope with mind-boggling spikes in natural gas prices or increased electricity prices incurred during a stretch of bitterly cold weather in mid-February.
The loans are for cities that would otherwise face bankruptcy in order to pay their bills, Rehder said. “Thankfully, we are not in that situation.”
Rehder said he and Assistant City Administrator Corey Shinstock had begun the application process, but quickly disbanded it. “It would be a waste of time to apply for it,” Rehder said.
Iola largely weathered the financial storm because of its practice of buying gas in advance and keeping it in storage.
That said, Iolans should expect higher utility bills because of increased usage, and an as-yet unknown hike in electricity costs.
The news that Iola did not need such an emergency loan was welcomed by Mayor Jon Wells, who praised Iola’s leaders, present and past, for their financial stewardship.
“We are in significantly better financial shape than many of our surrounding communities, in that we can pay our bills,” Wells said.
Rehder’s arrival also allowed Wells and the other commissioners to toss kudos Schinstock’s way. Schinstock served as interim administrator after Sid Fleming’s departure last March.
Wells noted Schinstock helped lead the city staff through the COVID-19 pandemic, a vicious wind storm last May that toppled power lines and hundreds of trees across that took weeks afterward to clean up, and the most recent cold snap.
“I don’t know how I personally would have dealt with this without your leadership,” Wells said. “I know you’re not going anywhere (Schinstock is returning to his role as assistant administrator), but you went above and beyond.”
IOLA will continue to purchase a portion of its natural gas from N&B Enterprises, a local utility that provides roughly a quarter of the city’s gas supplies.
