The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published September 6, 2017

Ambulance district changes bank

CAMDEN COUNTY – The Camden County Ambulance District is moving its banking functions to Central Bank.

Originally the district had their funds in First National Bank but moved the money to Heritage Bank.

At a recent meeting, the board decided it might be best to go out for bids from the different banks in the area to see if they can get a better deal on their money and if there are other conveniences that would be beneficial.

Of the bids that were sent out two responded – Heritage Bank and Central Bank. It was stated at the special meeting of the ambulance board last week that Great Southern Bank declined to bid.

One of the reasons is the ambulance district, being a tax entity, deals with large amounts of money that needs to be covered by insurance and that was stated as the reason Great Southern refused.

Two representatives from Central Bank were at the meeting to answer questions and explain about their organization. Currently the district has $2.1 million in the bank and (after expenses are paid) should have approximately $1.64 million by the end of the year.

After the tax income comes in to the district in January they should have around $3 million in the bank.

Central Bank does handle other tax entities including Camden County, who recently switched so the representative from Central Bank said dealing with governments is common for their bank.

There are several advantages and disadvantages between the two banks and those were explained at the meeting. Currently the district’s money is in a money market that receives .43 percent at Heritage.

Central’s rate for a money market is lower at .32 percent.

However, Heritage offers no interest on the checking or savings account – according to the ambulance district and Central does.

Currently they offer .25 percent on checking and .3 on savings and their CD’s are at .4 percent.

Another topic discussed was debit cards. The district has three debit cards – one for the chairman, one for the secretary and one for the maintenance man. This results in added paperwork for the secretary and a credit card would be more convenient.

The debit cards all have separate receipts when someone has purchased an item so that means three transactions that has to be entered into the books. With a credit card the district can receive one statement, which according to the secretary would make things easier.

Heritage Bank does not offer credit cards, the CCAD chairman said, but Central Bank does and Central’s cards are issued by them and not another party, since they are large enough to have their own credit card system.

Another advantage in going to Central is the hours of operation.

The CCAD Secretary only works part time for the ambulance district and due to her other job, cannot get to the bank when it is open.

That means that when the county sends a check to the district for tax income (and the check could be for hundreds of thousands of dollars) it has to be put in the night deposit.

Central bank is open later than Heritage and they have a branch in Walmart that could also be used.

After weighing the advantages of each bank, the district voted to move their funds to Central Bank.

The district has no debt though a recent purchase of lifts for the ambulances will be made in payments, those payments are stretched over three years and there is no interest. The district has the funds to pay outright for the lifts but decided to do it through payments since it doesn’t cost anything to go that route.

The CCAD also voted at the regular August meeting to keep the current tax rate in place and not lower or raise it.

The district responded to 321 calls in July of this year (latest figures that are available) which is down slightly from June’s 339 calls, which is the highest number of calls recorded for the district in any month since 2011.