(Jackson, Mn.)– Jackson’s interim City Administrator has been on the job now about a month. Bret Heitkamp has had extensive experience in the role previously in other communities. He says he’s already immersed himself in the budget and is trying to get a 25 percent increase in the preliminary levy request lowered. Heitkamp says a key part of that is going to be dealing with the city’s ambulance service which is operating at a heavy deficit…
“In 2025 that department is going to operate at a deficit of about $800,000 and so as we discussed anytime any business is in the red it’s not sustainable and certainly when you’re hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars the way the Ambulance Department is as it exists today, you just can’t sustain that so we’re looking for options to fix it.”
Heitkamp says the city’s Finance Committee met earlier this week and reviewed some options, with one in particular that he says could go to the city council…
“We’re going to utilize some of the community resources we have in terms of trying to restore some of the relationships with the casual employees and even potentially some of the firefighters to assist us in backfilling some of the shifts which means we can reduce overtime, and then we’re also looking at some mutual aid opportunities with neighboring communities to cover our station while we’re doing transfers with patients, et cetera. And so we reciprocate those services, we’re able to reduce the overtime, so then the end result is we’re moving the budget back in the right direction.”
Heitkamp made the comments in a recent interview on sister station KKOJ in Jackson.
