Voters in Heber Springs will go to the polls early in 2020 long before the big national elections are decided.

HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. — Voters in Heber Springs will go to the polls early in 2020 long before the big national elections are decided. People here will try to decide on an ambulance company after a city council decision led a judge to order a city-wide vote.

"A lot of the public is just concerned that they weren't consulted and weren't given an opportunity to be informed about the process on this," said Paul Muse, a member of the city council who supports the January 14th election.

"We went to great efforts to make sure that we were transparent in our decision," counters Heber Springs mayor Jimmy Clark.

The dispute dates to last summer when Clark and the council shopped around for proposals for the ambulance service franchise. The five-year contract for Northstar EMS was running out and for the first time in 15 years, a serious competing bid came in. Survival Flight had been providing air ambulance service to the Cleburne County area. Now they offered to get into a ground game.

"[Northstar] proposed that they would bring in two ALS units, which is advanced life support units, and then one company said they would bring in four," said Mayor Clark.

Disagreements over specifics of those proposals turned heated. Councilors like Muse started hearing from constituents mistakenly afraid ambulances would be replaced by helicopters, since that's how Survival Flight got its start.

"I would say that this is probably one of the more interesting situations we've had in Heber Springs," Muse said, comparing it to fights over alcohol sales in the 1990s when he served as mayor.

While the council approved the Survival Flight contract, opponents started a referendum petition and got a judge to agree that a call as big as this had to go to voters.

That election will be January 14th.

Mayor Clark is worried that a vote against the deal could bring back days of racing private ambulances trying to be first to collect a patient.

"It's pretty dangerous as far as I'm concerned," the mayor said. "When you open it up and bring in whatever ambulance service, you have a lot of competition. You have a lot of miscommunication. It's just not the best for public safety."

Muse is confident that even if voters short circuit the current deal, the council will find at least a temporary solution by the next day. He's also putting faith in the people.

"I am happy that the citizens of Heber Springs are getting to have a voice in this matter," he said.

The mayor hopes voters will take stock of the decision the council made and see this as more than a small town squabble.

"This is not about a vote. This is not about politics," Mayor Clark said. "This is totally about public safety, and you have to do what's right for your community."

Only people living in the city of Heber Springs are voting. County residents can't participate. Some living outside the city worried that the switch from Northstar to Survival Flight would affect them, since the older company offered services to some places.