Cherokee Nation Enterprises saved ambulance link

BY SHEILA STOGSDILL Comments 0
Published: January 7, 2009

WEST SILOAM SPRINGS — Cherokee Nation Enterprises was revealed Tuesday as the benefactor that kept an ambulance service running, Mayor Elaine Carr said.

The operator of the gaming and hospitality arm of the Cherokee Nation will pay about $16,833 a month, or about $202,000 a year, to keep Siloam Springs, Ark., ambulances coming into West Siloam Springs and nearby rural areas, Carr said.

Cherokee Casino, located in West Siloam Springs, offered to help temporarily until the community passes a sales tax, she said.

"I don’t know what we would have done without Cherokee Casino,” Carr said. "The casino is also paying $75,000 a year for the fire service contract.”

The new contract between the community and Cherokee Nation Enterprises was signed Dec. 31, hours before a contract would have expired and barred the service from coming into Oklahoma.

Siloam Springs was allowing its ambulance service to cross the state line to provide service for West Siloam Springs and rural southern Delaware County. But because of a lack of money, the community was going to stop its runs across the state line.

"We looked into buying an ambulance, but it would cost us $450,000, and that doesn’t include paramedics or other emergency workers,” Carr said.

Carr said the community is putting a 1-cent sales tax proposal on the April ballot. If passed, it should generate about $75,000 a year for emergency services, she said.

The community also is looking at a 3-mill school district levy for the Colcord, Moseley and Kansas, OK, school districts for emergency services, Carr said. That should generate $55,000 a year, she said.