No local bids made for billing services

On Dec. 6 on your Opinion page, a letter to the editor from Brenda Hehe was printed asking why the City of Yuma ambulance service does not use local billing for services rendered.

First and foremost, the City of Yuma hopes that her son and his injuries are on the mend and his health is good. As far as the billing services that the City of Yuma uses for its ambulance service, here are the facts.

On Sept. 13, 2010, an RFP was placed not only in the local paper but online as well through various local agencies to request bids for this service. The bid request was closed 30 days later on Oct. 12, 2010, and a total of five bids were received.

During the bid window, four local firms here in Yuma were made aware of the open bid and encouraged to participate. Sadly, not one of these firms took advantage of this opportunity and all of these bids received were from agencies not only outside of Yuma, but outside of the state as well.

The city will continue to encourage local business and firms to bid on services that the City of Yuma may need, but the responsibility lies with those businesses, and I hope that in the future they will take advantage of these opportunities so that those dollars can stay local here in Yuma.

Ricky L. Rinehart

Operations Administrator

City of Yuma