John Coffelt, Editor

Coffee County Ambulance Authority unanimously decided at the April 20 meeting to not enter into a contract with the organization that provides medical services to Bonnaroo to provide ambulances and crews needed for the festival to comply with state law.

Ambulance Authority Chairman Tim Stubblefield stressed that the cause was staffing shortages. 

“Our first obligation is with the citizens of Coffee County,” Stubblefield said to the agreement of the board. 

According to the state’s mass gathering law in addition to the medical personnel required to staff an event, the person proposing or holding an assembly “shall provide … one licensed emergency vehicle … stationed at the assembly site per 50,000 (attendees) and must be capable of arriving at a case within five minutes after notice.”  These can from a commercial contracted service.  

The county contracts that service each year with National Event Services, going back to the first Bonnaroo in 2001. This year, however, the county is concerned of the legal liability of pulling one of those stationed ambulances from the Bonnaroo grounds in the event of the need outside the festival.

“My concern is … we are contractually obligated and he could sue us if we don’t (keep) an ambulance out there,” Bonner said.

Ambulance Authority Member Missy DeFord asked what if someone is has a heart attack and all the county ambulances are tied up.

Stubbelfield said,  “If we could adequately staff for the citizens of Coffee County, I have no problem putting an ambulance out there at Bonnaroo.”

Ambulance Authority Member Dr. Jay Trussler stressed that the decision was due to staffing.

Bonner added, “This is not a financial decision. This is because of staffing. Even if they offered pay, we’d still have trouble with staffing.” 

Longtime staffing shortages

EMS Chief Michael Bonner reported to the board earlier in the meeting Thursday that the service has five empty paramedic positions.

“Five full time openings, they all need to be medics,” he said. “We’re starting to hire (basic EMTs and advanced EMTs) and we’re just going to have to train them and get them through school.”

Bonner called the staffing situation “not as good, but better than it was. Certainly better than last year’s March.”

In May of last year, Bonner approached the county for substantial employee pay raises that would help stem the staffing losses to other counties. At that time the department had a staff of only 17 out of 33.

Bonner noted that on one day last week three medics called out sick. The county needs to have at least three advanced life support ambulance in service.

He said that for the first 18 years there were two ALS truck stationed at the festival 24/7. Last year there was only one ambulance promised to station at the festival.

Medical will be provided

Two important details were stressed at the meeting, Bonnaroo maintains fully equipped medical tents to provide onsite care of event staff and guests. Also, the county will respond to 911 calls placed from Bonnaroo organizers. The festival contract does not ask Coffee County EMS to go onto the grounds, nor does its employees provide on-site treatment. Unless there were an major event involving mass casualties, the county only transports individuals for treatment that cannot be provided onsite (mostly X-rays). 

“At Bonnaroo there should be two physicians working there. Their tents are designed to be acting as an ER,” Trussler said. “It not going to be a situation where there’s not going to be medical care at Bonnaroo.”

He said Bonnaroo medical has full advance life support capabilities.

Strained relationship grows

Since the county and Bonnaroo were unable to iron out a contract after the initial one expired in 2017, the festival requested annexation into Manchester City. In 2022, a highly contested ticket tax passed the full county commission on Jan. 11, imposing a $1-$5 fee based on the price of admission for all large scale events. This is in addition to a similar one that the city passed after negotiations with the festival.

After the county pasted the fee, Bonnaroo responded with a letter criticizing the fee and refused reimburse the county for its expenses related to the festival, asking the county to cover those expenses with money collected from the fees.   

A similar letter was sent to the county again this year.

Some county commissioners were concerned, despite the mayor’s office assurance that the fee would more than cover all expenses, that there could be shortfalls.

“It’s a tier tax and it’s (self-reported). We don’t see anything but the number of tickets,” Ambulance Authority Member Frank Watkins said. “We have to depend on them to tell us the tiers.”

“We could get as little as a $100,000 or as much as $300,000. We don’t know,” he said, adding that the festival should have covered the services for one festival to allow the county to gage fee revenues.

The county’s current budget has estimated $207,500 in revenues to come from the fee.

The letter this year caught some departments off guard. At a Emergency Management Meeting last month, leadership from county first responders, indicated that they had not budgeted Bonnaroo overtime into their payroll. The discussion of overtime was included in the Ambulance Authority Meeting.      

“If I’m going to be paying (employees) overtime to be out there, I’d rather pay them to be…here,” Watkins said.

“—but we weren’t paying them overtime,” Bonner said.

“This time we are,” Watkins said.

Watkins also noted that the Coffee County Sheriff Department would not be all hands on deck as with previous years. He shared that after Manchester Police Department asked for off-duty deputies to assist the city. He was told that festival organizers baulked at the expense.

County Mayor Judd Matheny told the Times after the meeting that he has been in communication with Bonnaroo officials and that the festival says it will hire a private ambulance service for the ambulances. He said that he had given the directive that the county first take that there would be three available ambulances before contracting with Bonnaroo. He too stressed that the situation was about staffing and not about money.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.