A source of political bloodletting in recent years between Vicksburg and Warren County officials may remain dormant at least for the rest of the year, as the first quarter of ambulance calls resulted in more trips outside the city limits, but little disagreement over the cost.

Warren County supervisors OK’d an invoice Monday from the City of Vicksburg for $173,700 that listed 579 calls for ambulance service outside Vicksburg from Jan. 1 to March 31. Quarterly figures leading up to the current arrangement between the two local governments had averaged about 400 non-city responses.

In past years, the county was billed according to the types of services rendered. Life support and rescue runs were categorized separately from non-emergency calls such as patient transfers to nursing homes – responses for which the county was not billed.

An agreement in August 2006 changed the fee to the county paying a flat $300 per run regardless of the response type. The move continued the unique, city-run service and averted privatizing it for county residents.

Timely and accurate billing appear to be smoothing out the issue.

“We have a bill,” said District 5 Supervisor Richard George, board president. “It’s fine.”

The higher number of runs, compiled by the city, has no pattern or trend, Mayor Laurence Leyens said, adding he will wait to make comparisons.

“There doesn’t appear to be any problem,” he said. “We won’t have a true picture of the totality of it until the fiscal year is over.”

Ambulance is the oldest shared service between local governments, dating back about 40 years. Others are covered by interlocal agreements for emergency dispatcher pay and tax collection, assessment and redemption.

Costs to city taxpayers was a stated cause for concern the last time the deal came up for renewal. Faced with a climbing $3 million budget to continue the ambulances, city officials came up with the $300 fee because it reflected the average loss per run. Collections had dropped to about 55 percent, causing the city to drop its local collection agency for another.

On the agendaAlso Monday, supervisors:Held a public hearing on a proposed abandonment of a 0.6-mile portion of Thompson Lake Road.Extended the contract of Quality Unlimited Inc. to provide mosquito control supplies.Approved an $87,408.70 invoice from Keeling Co. for installation of a vertical turbine pump at Clear Creek Golf Course.Authorized a request for a change order to a contract with Motorola on the re-banding of county radio frequencies.Approved $950 in full-page ads for Vicksburg and Warren Central High School football programs, Vicksburg Benevolent Club homecoming and the Mississippi Association of Supervisors’ June convention magazine.Took no action following an executive session convened to discuss the county’s involvement in the Paw Paw Road lawsuits.