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MORGANTOWN - The Monongalia County Commission on Wednesday approved the placement of the Mon EMS excess levy on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
Mon EMS is asking voters to renew the levy that was initially passed in November 2022 and implemented July 1, 2023.
If passed, the levy would hold rates at their current rate - 4.8 cents for every $100 of assessed valuation for Class II (owner occupied) property and 9.6 for every $100 of Class III and IV (commercial) property.
It's anticipated the tax would generate $5,345,131 annually for an estimated four-year total of $21,380,524. As with all levies, those totals will fluctuate over the life of the levy based on factors including the addition of new homes and businesses to the county's overall tax base.
Using the average county values for homes ($270,000) and cars ($30,000) assessed at 60%, Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora said the levy would cost a family with a home and two vehicles $112.32 a year, which equates to $9.36 a month or 31 cents a day.
Mon EMS Interim Director Bob Swickard said the initial passage of the levy allowed Mon EMS to lower response times and increase its services and capabilities. Renewal of the levy, he continued, is critical to maintain that standard.
"In the last four years, Mon EMS has responded to 84,450 calls for service," he said, adding, "Response times were a hot topic in the last levy. Prior to the last levy, Mon EMS operated two stations - The Gateway and Station 66 behind Mon General. Every call in the county was run from those two. Because of the levy, we now operate seven bases throughout the county - Blacksville, Gateway, Clinton District, Cheat Lake, Downtown, Evansdale and Sabraton. Voters spoke and Mon EMS listened. No question, because of the levy this was able to come to fruition to improve better response time."
Swickard explained that cardiac arrest calls are among the most high-stress scenarios faced by both EMS professionals and the families on the other end of the phone.
"Mon EMS since January of this year, helped nine people survive a sudden cardiac arrest and return home, including a WVU college freshman," he said, explaining Mon EMS rates well above the national average for cardiac arrest patients who are ultimately discharged from the hospital fully neurologically intact.
He pointed out that Mon EMS became the third agency in West Virginia to begin administering whole blood in the field in 2025, and has utilized voluntary training through the National Pediatric Readiness Project when responding to more than 600 calls for sick and injured children in the last year.
"Constant training and preparedness are not an accident," he said.
Preparedness, Sikora noted, is the name of the game when it comes to emergency response.
"I pray that we go for the next 20 years paying for this levy and I never need it. That's not the point. The point is to pay for readiness - for your family, for your kids, for your friends, for your neighbors - that when they need it, that expert service is there."
Mon EMS was formed in a 2019 merger of EMS services provided by Mon Health and WVU Medicine.
Sikora said the resulting agency has become the class of the state.
"I don't think anybody can put any other service out there. There is no model like this across the state. We are all equal partners. You have the two hospital systems, which make up Mon EMS, and the citizens, through the levy, support it. There's nothing else like that in the state, and I'm very proud of it."
Commissioner Jeff Arnett explained that while the hospital systems do help support Mon EMS financially as contributing members, the agency is an independent entity with its own board of directors.
"I know there the particular concern prior to the last levy was the readiness in the outlying areas of the county. And I know that's the most expensive part because the call volume is not nearly as high, and it's so remote. But it's continually staffed on the western end on a daily basis. So that service is there for the citizens when they need it regardless of how frequently the call comes," Arnett said. "Everyone should know that help is on the way."
Passage and renewal of an excess levy require support from 60% of voters. Voters passed the levy with a 62.4% majority when it first appeared in November 2022.
Renewal would keep the levy in place through June 2031.