MERCED COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — It was a packed Board Chambers on Tuesday morning as community members shared their experience with Riggs Ambulance Service, operating exclusively in Merced County.
“My mom would not be here if it wasn’t for Riggs,” one attendee said.
Riggs was once family-owned before being sold to a Nevada-based non-profit in 2015.
“Despite claims that Riggs is not local, Riggs is local. They’ve been here 80 years,” another attendee said.
Two local fire chiefs also spoke, sharing their appreciation for Riggs employees but also their concerns with the company.
“Our frustration has never been with the employees of Riggs,” City of Merced Fire Department Chief Casey Wilson said. “They’ve served this community with professional and heart, but with the absence of leadership with it mattered, mattered most.”
“We kind of feel like we’re left out in the West. I do feel for the employees,” Los Banos City Fire Department Chief Paul Tualla said. “Those field crews do an excellent job and I do appreciate what they do, but they’re being put in a position when they arrive on scene late and they’re having to deal with upset family members.”
The county’s ambulance contract expires January 1, so the bidding process was opened, as it is every five years.
The Board of Supervisors voted last month to give American Medical Response the initial bid and followed through on that decision during Tuesday’s meeting.
“There will be an ambulance service provider here and I hope it’ll be most of our employees still providing their excellent care here,” Riggs Ambulance operations manager Michael Swanson said. “I hope there’s no effect on the community. It definitely won’t happen right away. But long term I can’t speak for if things change.”
“If they were the best ones, I think we would have probably stayed the course, however going through this process, we recognized there was something better for our residents,” Merced County Board of Supervisors chairman Josh Pedrozo said.
American Medical Response is a national company with a local component in Stanislaus County. The company plans to expand its service in Merced County, including two 24-hour stations in Los Banos and Dos Palos.
Leaders say they also plan to absorb Riggs’ current workforce of 300, ranging from dispatchers to EMTs.
“Where the quality of the knowledge of the county is not in the title, the name with Riggs but it’s with the workforce,” Daniel Iniguez with American Medical Response said.
