When Park County commissioners learned earlier this year that they’d be receiving $5.66 million from the American Rescue Plan, there was some concern about whether they’d find enough projects that qualified for the funding. The cash comes with numerous strings that generally require local governments to spend the money on a limited set of projects, such as responding to or mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts, or investing in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

“I was going like, ‘OK, how are we going to spend $5 million bucks?’” Commissioner Joe Tilden recalled. “And now, some of the people I’ve been talking to, there might not be enough money. So things have changed a little bit.”

Commissioners heard their first formal request for funding on Tuesday, when representatives from Powell Valley Healthcare and Cody Regional Health asked for $750,000 to replace aging ambulances and to build a new ambulance garage in Powell.

While the commission has yet to make any final decisions, and plans to discuss the funding in more detail last week, they signaled support for the healthcare organizations’ request.

“The way the population is growing, the way the population is aging, … it’s probably a pretty good idea to move forward with this,” said Commission Chairman Lee Livingston.

In starting his pitch, Cody Regional Health paramedic Tom Fitzsimmons described the county as being “in very good shape for EMS coverage.”

“Having said that, we have been challenged greatly by the COVID pandemic, as you can well imagine,” Fitzsimmons said.

Crews have needed more space to prepare and decontaminate their ambulances before and after each call — and there have been more and more transports to Billings for critical care. Not all of that increase has been tied to COVID-19, either, Fitzsimmons said, noting there’s been an increase in older residents, who tend to have more medical needs.

Park County’s population has been both growing and aging. It’s a trend that, anecdotally, appears to have been exacerbated by baby boomers migrating to the area amid the pandemic, Fitzsimmons said.

“The relocation of retirees to Cody will strain an already stressed workforce,” he wrote in his presentation.

While official data on the number and types of people who’ve recently moved into Park County remains a ways off, Commissioner Lloyd Thiel offered that, “I don’t think I need a study to tell us that we are being invaded, if you will.”

Of the recent construction and development he’s witnessed, most of the clients have been “50-plus, 60-plus, semi-retired or retired people,” Thiel said. “And with that’s going to come the demand [for services].”

Fitzsimmons said that EMS crews in Powell and Cody are seeing an increasing call load, with calls trending up at an average rate of 4.2% per year.

At 11:30 p.m. Monday, he said Cody Regional Health had four ambulances on the road: three traveling between Cody and Billings and one responding to a local 911 call.

“That left one ambulance that wasn’t capable for [advanced life support] services and one ambulance that was in the bay,” Fitzsimmons said. “In the summertime around midnight, it’s not uncommon for us to have that kind of demand on our trucks — in particular when we are called to the park [Yellowstone].”

He used those facts to set the stage for Powell Valley Healthcare’s and Cody Regional Health’s $747,518 request.

That would include $240,000 to buy a new ambulance for the Cody hospital, $209,025 for a new PVHC ambulance and $298,493 to build a new ambulance station in Powell.

Fitzsimmons said Cody Regional Health currently has two trucks with electrical problems, and two with more than 175,000 miles. Meanwhile, one of PVHC’s trucks — a 2006 model with 158,000 miles — has needed new head gaskets two different times, he said.

Beyond needing a new vehicle, PVHC says it also needs a new place to park them. Two of PVHC’s ambulances are currently stored indoors, but the other three are parked outside — “and they’re truly not ready,” Fitzsimmons said. He said COVID helped illustrate the need for an enclosed space.

PVHC is proposing a 2,240 square foot garage with five bays to house the entire EMS fleet. It would include a drive-thru bay that could be used for future pandemic testing and vaccinations. PVHC leaders intend to build the structure on the northeast corner of a field located west of the Powell Valley Care Center along Grand Street.

“In the State of Wyoming. Park County is probably in the very best shape when it comes to EMS than any other county in the state. And I’m proud of that,” Fitzsimmons said. “But I’d like to keep it that way as well.”

Commissioners signaled their support. Thiel said the project should “definitely” be included in the county’s list of American Rescue Plan projects and Commissioner Scott Mangold suggested it was a “slam dunk” that could be first on that list.

Speaking as a baby boomer, “I certainly wouldn’t want to vote against this for my own self interest,” Mangold quipped. But more seriously, he said strong EMS services translate to economic development, “especially for some of the older people who want to move to the community.”

The only commissioner to sound a cautionary note was Tilden, who called the project both worthwhile and needed, but thought it might be premature to commit to it. He noted other potential projects. For instance, the county has been trying to figure out what to do with its sewer lagoons, which are getting close to filling up after a surge in use over the past couple of years; commissioners have been talking with City of Cody officials about potentially partnering on a solution, in which Cody could take the waste in its new lagoons.

At a meeting last month, commissioners also wondered whether they could use the ARP funds to help Meeteetse or another municipality with qualifying projects. There have also been discussions about possible ways to boost broadband internet access, though there are other federal funds available for that work.

Commissioners plan to discuss the spending further at their July 13 meeting, but there’s no particular time crunch. Only half of the funds are currently in-hand — with the remaining $2.8 million not expected until January — and the county has until December 2026 to spend the cash.

The City of Powell, meanwhile, is receiving $943,000 under ARP, Cody is getting $1.49 million and Meeteetse $49,300.