President Mike Simpler said state emergency medical service (EMS) insurance funding is $40,000 less than budgeted. The department anticipated $94,000 in EMS insurance funds, a 15 percent reduction from the prior year. Simpler said these funds come from a percentage of health insurance policies written in the state.

The company is also facing a 31 percent cut in fire insurance funding, having estimated $250,000 while receiving $211,000. The funding comes from the sale of fire insurance policies for properties purchased in Rehoboth Beach. The company receives 3.75 percent of the proceeds from fire insurance sales.

Simpler said county funding is down 30 percent of what the company budgeted. He said county funding is tied to things such as transfer taxes and building permit fees, two areas that have been hit hard by a slowdown in home sales and new construction.

Simpler said the city’s ambulance supply grant, which comes from the county, is still in decent shape because the funding is based on the number of runs per district. Because Rehoboth goes on more runs than other towns in the region, the city gets more money.

The economic downturn has also affected fundraising and donations, which are 22 percent less than budgeted, Simpler said. The company anticipated decreases, he said, but the numbers are still lower than projected.

To help deal with the decrease in funding, Simpler said the company put a freeze on spending for anything that hasn’t already been ordered. He said the company is not skimming back at all in its firefighting and ambulance duties but is holding back on some gear, radios and training expenses.

“It’s never affected our responses,” Simpler said. “That’s our top priority.”

Despite the economic issues, the company is moving forward with its capital campaign to build a new Station 2 on Airport Road. The company has stated the improvements will better accommodate firefighters coming from out of town. The current Station 2 is a former airplane hangar from the old Rehoboth Airport. Simpler said the company has already raised $60,000 to 70,000, but now intends to kick the campaign into high gear.

Firefighters with the company are all volunteers, with eight paid positions for emergency medical technicians. Simpler said he is optimistic the company will not have to dip into its savings this year, but he does anticipate possibly having to dip into it for $200,000 to $250,000 next year if funding does not improve.

‘We’re not 100 percent poor,” he said. “We want to make sure when the trend turns around, we’ll turn around as well.”