CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority Executive Director Lance Wheeler believes he has the organization moving in the right direction.
Wheeler took over the head role in the midst of financial strain on KCEAA and in the aftermath of Elkview man John Lucas being struck and killed by a county ambulance. Since accepting the position, he’s led the charge in identifying $243,292.77 in unnecessary spending.
“I made sure that we put up a display that has the exact number that we add up on how much we’ve saved KCEAA for this fiscal budget, and together as a team we’ve saved nearly a quarter-million dollars,” Wheeler said.
KCEAA board president and Kanawha County Commission president Ben Salango selected Wheeler for his fiscal work while a member of the county commission. The authority faced a budget shortfall of around $2 million when Wheeler took control, and he understands that won’t go away overnight.
“This isn’t an issue that is only a leadership issue. This is something that we all have to work together. I can’t go in there with one person and find every little dollar that we can save. I wish I could. It takes a team effort,” he said.
While Wheeler is clawing back spending by KCEAA, he wants residents to be assured that services are not being cut in the process. He wants to improve the authority’s operations while patching the financial gaps.
“That’s not cutting corners. That’s not reducing essential services on those response times that I talked about earlier. That’s finding real, verified savings in this budget that we can save on,” he said.
The climb is just getting started at KCEAA, but Wheeler has a definitive goal to work toward over the next year. He believes he has the people and the plan to resolve the budget issues by the next time the books turn over.
“I think if you give us time working together, we’re going to have that balanced budget like we promised next year in July,” he said.
Wheeler also continues to seek new employees for KCEAA and add to the nearly 200 full-time workers on staff.