CHAPIN, S.C. — Some residents in Chapin have been expressing concerns about Lexington County emergency services for the past few years.
A state lawmaker stepped in to help, but now it seems that didn't work, leaving many with mixed emotions.
A proposed new ambulance for Chapin with a total allocation of $365,000 is what SC Senator Ronnie Cromer wanted to add to this year's state budget, but it didn't quite pan out as intended.
Charli Wessinger is Lexington County's council member for the Chapin region. She tells News 19 she wishes things transpired differently.
"I spoke with Senator Cromer in detail about this and we did talk about how we wished we would have talked beforehand and been able to communicate and work through that so that it could be presented differently in the senate budget or a different amount or whatnot that we could have actually used county wide," said Charli Wessinger, District 6 Lexington County council member.
According to Cromer, he reached out to Lexington County's administrator Lynn Sturkie about one month before the budget was finalized. And because Cromer explains he didn't hear a response for about a month, while Lexington County was managing a budget of their own, Cromer included this line item for an ambulance.
But according to Lexington County EMS chief Brian Hood, their ambulances aren't assigned to one specific location.
"It's dynamically deployed and it doesn't have a home per say. It's constantly moved," Hood said.
So with the line item specifying Chapin, this posed a problem.
Senator Cromer telling News 19 that these line items have to be detailed and funding allocated used in that specifically written way.
"Our finance committee goes by some pretty strict rules about what a line item that is allocated or dedicated to can be used for," Cromer said.
"We never declined the funding," Sturkie said.
Sturkie tells News 19 Lexington County offered alternative ways to use the state funding, but nothing could match the specifically written item.
Chapin residents say they're frustrated this didn't go differently. Jason Resnick is a Chapin resident with 25 years of EMT experience. He's also running for Lexington County council.
"For somebody that understands the importance of the issue, I feel that it's important you think outside of the box. If the state's going to give you the $365,000 to use as a line item to purchase the equipment, the county should do their share and find the staffing and put up the staffing to use on the ambulance," Resnick said.
Chapin mayor Al Koon, saying that there's consistently been little listening to residents concerns by Lexington County when it comes to a more efficient ambulance system.
"That's the part that kind of frustrates me, that, the unwillingness that we've seen in regards to communicating and listening to the citizens," Koon said.
According to Cromer, if there's a next time, he'll try to get a better feel for Lexington County's needs beforehand.