I think I'll just wander out into the hills and let the coyotes eat me. This is ridiculous.

Why is this even an issue? Air-Evac has 19 bases in Texas alone, never mind the other 123 available in other states that the membership covers! Someone at the meeting mentioned you may not get Air-Evac. That’s true, but when you sign up for the 'other' service you may not get them either.

Why was a decision on this not put off until someone from Air-Evac could make a presentation to the city council?  Why are we not showing Air-Evac the support they deserve?

Everyone seems to forget that they came here to help our community.

I for one am grateful that we have them here. I appreciate the fact that if I need it (again), I can be on my way to a hospital in minutes, instead of waiting for CareFlite to respond at their leisure with a helicopter from who knows where.

I'm willing to bet, anonymous, that you work for Air-Evac. The issue has nothing to do with whether people are grateful that Air-Evac is here, it has to do with Air-Evac ATTEMPTING TO MAKE THEIR SERVICE MANDATORY. Sheesh. It's only a secondary issue that any other helicopter ambulance wasn't even approached in a bidding process. Air-Evac wants to make money? Let 'em SELL THEIR SERVICES to those that want them, NOT FORCE THEM DOWN PEOPLE'S THROATS by trying to get government to MAKE people have 'em.

Wow. Salon, do you have some hostility issues?

No. I do not work for Air-Evac.

I have used their services, and I am thankful they are available to me.

You are right- I do feel hostile towards this, when I'm not laughing about how ridiculous it is. I"m truly glad you like their services and I have nothing against helicopter ambulance services per se. If you feel good having them, and were willing to pay for it, more power to you. But that is an entirely different proposition than someone voluntarily deciding to opt in for an air ambulance service and the company that sells those services as memberships attempting to make them mandatory for everybody by trying to get city council to push it. If I didn't feel hostility about it, I wouldn't have written about it.

And i should say, there are a LOT of people who feel the exact same way as I do, when they're not laughing with their pals over the sheer audacity.

Actually, I took the time to educate myself about air ambulances. I would hope that the city council would have done a better job than what was presented in the video. As I understand it, there was always an "Opt-out" option.

Lets say everyone in GR city limits pays $1 (according to the video). That makes, lets say $2500 (Population give or take), X12 = $30,000. If the average flight costs 15,000 where are they making crazy profits? 3 flights from GRMC and they are flying on their own dime.

I personally get upset when I am asked to subsidize something like the Amphitheater (and the Expo). Last year there was a loss of 630,000 that you and I payed for. $95 may not be much in the 'grand scheme of things' but it's still not right to pass that on to the tax payers..

And for what? The Promise? Why is it they never have anything else there? I remember Pat Green there a few years ago.

@Anonymous. Here's what should have happened, in my opinion. Air Evac wanting to make a pitch to make air ambulance mandatory? Immediately City Council should have said, we have to agree that this is something we want to do and then put out public bids for it, allowing other services to bid as well, regardless of whether Air Evac has a company location here. Then, if the companies themselves wanted to make the pitch, THEY should have done it. And forget the Opt Out-there should always be an Opt In. Period.

I certainly didn't say anything myself about whether Air Evac is making crazy profits. In fact, I don't care if they are or not. They're a private company, not subsized by the people and can make as much money as they want. What I care about is that people should not have mandatory air ambulance service foisted on them.

I'm with you about the ampitheatre and the Expo. I don't know how much you read the site, but we have a LOT of information about the cost of this. I didn't like Mike Ford okaying Mike Dooley going to Vegas, don't like Mike Dooley making pitches to get 4b money,such as for LOD, especially when he has no floor he must meet in bookings. And I hope you have been reading about that RV space stuff. When Mike Dooley first pitched for some extra RV spaces at the Expo, it was only going to be a few. Now there's a big push to get a lot of them, at the expense of private RV operators. And using 4b money to do the workups on the RV plats.

Salon, we are going to have to agree to disagree. I have enjoyed the debate.

I will be up late reading through the site to find out all I can about the 4b money, the expo center, and so on. Thanks for all the information. I wish I had the time to make it to more of the city council meetings.

Air Evac "anonymous" types and sock puppets are all over the net cheering for Air Evac.  No single company could be more greedy.  They charged me $17,000.00 for a 30-40 minute ride to a hospital and I was a college student without insurance.  Somewhere they ask on the Internet, "well what is your life worth?" All I can say is that with this kind of reasoning, they can charge $170,000 in the future, take your house, take your life, take everything you have and still want more.

"Anonymous" with such an intolerant viewpoint must be an Air Evac employee.  They act indignant if you dare to question them.  It's the same other places.

Just so you know, my life was not saved by Air Evac because my injuries were superficial.  I wonder how many scores of trips I could take around the Grand Canyon for $17,000? And please don't tell me it's for equipment and trained personnel.  It can only be explained by pure greed.