Pennington Gap fire and EMS leaders urge Lee County for larger budget support as calls surge

Leaders of Pennington Gap’s public safety services urged Lee County supervisors on May 21 to increase funding for fire and EMS as the county prepares its budget.

Brian Gilmore, assistant town manager and the town’s fire chief and EMS director, said Pennington Gap’s EMS budget is $456,000 and that the service is under severe financial strain amid rising call volumes. Gilmore said his agency billed roughly $800,000 but collected only about $320,000, leaving a structural gap that the town subsidizes; he reported 977 calls from July to March and said Pennington and other local agencies are running roughly 1,200–1,400 calls annually in the current year.

"We are struggling really bad," Gilmore told the board, outlining payroll, vehicle and insurance costs and the difficulty of collecting bills from uninsured or Medicaid/Medicare patients. He asked supervisors to consider additional county funding sources — including one‑time ARPA allocations or casino revenue — to help purchase equipment or cover match requirements on grants.

Mike Twigg, a volunteer fire chief and member of the Jonesville Rescue Squad board, and other volunteer rescue and fire representatives emphasized that many local squads are volunteer or partially volunteer and are constrained by staffing, soft‑billing practices and regulatory limits on hard billing. Twigg urged the board to recognize the resource pressures and said rescue squads are required by law to respond to calls even when reimbursement is unlikely.

Board members asked questions about current billing and collection practices and whether different staffing models or shared services could reduce costs. No appropriation was made during the meeting; supervisors said they would consider the requests as they finalize the county budget and suggested community meetings to discuss public safety needs.

Why it matters: emergency response capacity affects public safety countywide; many small counties face the tension between rising service demand and constrained local revenue. The testimony provides specific local budget figures and operational constraints for supervisors to consider in budget deliberations.

Next steps: the board will review funding requests during the budget process and hold follow‑up community meetings; supervisors offered to form committees and meet with stakeholders to explore options.