Superior Ambulance Requests City of Grants Increase Subsidy; Requests Negotiations from Cibola County and Village of Milan to Continue Services

GRANTS, NM – At a Special City Council Meeting held on Monday August 28, there was a discussion and action item titled “Approval of Superior Ambulance Service Subsidy Increase”. Prior to this meeting, Superior Ambulance sent a 30-day notice of termination of contract to the City of Grants, Village of Milan, and Cibola County, they are requesting an increase in the subsidy they receive from $120,000 to $300,000 per year for operations in City of Grants.

CEO of Superior Ambulance New Mexico, Chris Archuleta, came before the board to discuss the reasoning behind the notice and the request of increase subsidy.

A rchuleta said that they are losing quite a bit of money on services in the City of Grants. He said that they are losing anywhere from $46,000 to $50,000 a month, which originally was covered by services the company provides in Albuquerque. In recent months, Archuleta said, the Albuquerque services have not reached the amount necessary to sustain the ambulance services in Cibola without additional subsidies.

Archuleta told city councilors that Grants has been the only funding source for Superior Ambulance services in the area, with the city currently paying $10,000 a month for these services.

Archuleta said Superior Ambulance was in discussions with the Village of Milan and Cibola County governments before the COVID-19 pandemic, regarding subsidies and funding. He said that the original negotiation was that both the county and the village would match the amount that the city is paying which is $10,000 and the last negotiations before talks ended was around $20,000.

The purpose for providing notice is not to leave the city, but to initiate negotiations between the county, the village and the city in order for Superior Ambulance to remain operational, according to Archuleta. Archuleta said without the additional funding they will have to look at other ways to “stop the bleeding.” Archuleta said the immediate solutions to stop the bleeding is to cut back services by removing one ambulance. He said that removing even one ambulance is not what he wants to do, but it is something that he needs to do because “Albuquerque can no longer fund this operation.” Archuleta said removing one ambulance will allow Superior to keep services here in Grants while the company and local governments are undergoing negotiations.

Archuleta said the reason Superior Ambulance has gone into the negative is due to COVID-19 and increased operational costs. Pre-COVID, Archuleta said the company was slightly in the red due to $5,000 a month of overtime, but that amount has increased to $50,000 a month. Due to these increased costs, Superior Ambulance is requesting an increase in subsidies.

Archuleta said, “I am hoping that this council can maybe bring [the county and the village] to the table, and we can get the three entities together to fund the ambulance service properly.” Archuleta also said, “The funding sources need to come from the three government agencies, it can’t come from one in the future.”

Overall, Superior Ambulance is requesting the City of Grants to pay $25,000 a month or $300,000 per year in order for them to continue services, but they are also wanting both the County as well as the Village to pay $45,000 a month or $540,000 per year for services.

At the September Coffee with the Managers meeting, Cibola County Manager Kate Fletcher and Milan Manager Linda Cooke spoke about the issue regarding Superior Ambulance.

Fletcher said, “The PRC only gives one license to an area… The city has a license for Superior.” Cooke and Fletcher claimed that Superior Ambulance has never reached out to them.

Fletcher said, “We never negotiated with them, never. They sent a letter in the mail asking for $45,000 a month… We can’t purchase anything over $60,000 without going out for [Request for Proposals, a legal document allowing governments to make expensive purchases or contract agreements]. There’s already an RFP with the city, so you can’t do two… because it’s one PRC license.” Fletcher also said they are not going to negotiate anything on a subsidy level until the RFP has been finalized.

When asked if the Grants Fire and Rescue was aware of the situation regarding Superior Ambulance, Fire Chief Robert Hays said, “No, Chris Archuleta didn’t even tell his employees here that he sent the letter to us.” Hays also said, because Superior Ambulance is PRC licensed, them suddenly giving a notice of termination of contract doesn’t qualify for them to terminate. However long it takes for the city to go out for RFP, or for Superior to restructure, they have to stay in business and provide services regardless. According to Hays, “It will be status quo all the way through until the City Council takes action or no action with regards to the RFP.” Hays said that if Superior removes an ambulance from the Grants area, GFR will provide the best care they can for the citizens of Grants.