Kudos to Joel Benz and the TRAA team for their accomplishments!
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City Council approves $1M for ambulance services as TRAA continues to stabilize
by: Ethan Dahlen, Clayton McMahan
Feb 11, 2025
https://www.wane.com/top-stories/city-council-approves-1m-for-ambulance-services-as-traa-works-to-stabilize/
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — In April 2023, Fort Wayne City Council set aside $3 million to support the Three Rivers Ambulance Authority (TRAA).
“With Council now investing $3 million into that board, we want to make sure we follow that investment with accountability,” said Russ Jehl, 2nd District councilman, in 2023.
The decision came at a time when Fort Wayne’s ambulance provider was undergoing a stretching fiscal period, and the money was set to be stretched out over three equal dispersals.
On Tuesday, TRAA appeared before City Council regarding the second portion of that allocation.
“All we were really doing is accessing the second million of the funds that we had been granted several years ago,” said TRAA Executive Director Joel Benz. “City Council just wanted an update every million that we hit, and so we’ve reached that mark.”
TRAA has recently entered a new era where they only serve the city after Allen County dropped their services. So far, this new timeline for TRAA has yielded better results so far.
“We are doing much better financially. We presented a balanced budget … we are slowly approaching and hoping to be fully staffed here soon. Really encouraging things,” Benz said.
TRAA passed a balanced budget for 2025, which left a simple question for City Council to ask.
“So why are you asking us for $1 million,” said Paul Ensley, 1st District councilman.
The answer is not to deepen TRAA’s coffers, but instead to increase pay via retention bonuses in an effort to boost employment rates and improve compliance.
“We had a real struggle with that for a long time, so we felt like that was a real strategic area to invest in,” Benz said.
City Council voted 9-0 in favor of approving another $1 million for TRAA. As for the third million, City Council documents stipulate the city controller must make a formal request in addition to TRAA presenting a long-term financial plan.
While that is still on the table, there is hope the city will be able to hang onto the funds.
“I’m not going to make any promises,” Benz said. “But, it isn’t my intention to come back at this point.”
