After more than two months of an open vacant seat and position on its board, the Westside Community Healthcare District Board of Directors elected a new vice president and board member on June 24.

Debbie Lopes, current board member, takes over the vice president role that was previously held by Kenneth Helms. Helms resigned in March without explanation. Ashley Casteel fills in the vacant seat of having a board member from Zone 3, which includes Stevinson. 

As vice president, Lopes wants the district to focus on improving its ambulance operations and getting a potential ballot measure passed in the future.

“We need a new ambulance [vehicle]. It’s got some high mileage, and we need some new equipment,” she said. “I’d like to see a ballot measure passed again for the communities of Newman and Gustine to pass a measure that would help us financially long term.”

Casteel has a history of working with the district before she became a board member. She handled marketing to push for Measure D back in 2022 and was involved with the district’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) week.

Casteel joined the board because she wants to help local communities within the district. As a parent with a 2-year old child, she is concerned about having the ambulance take more than 30 minutes to arrive for an emergency.

“You just can’t afford that kind of time. I wanted to join the board [and] see if I can help make some positive financial decisions to help the board stay in the area because we’re very, very close to closure,” Casteel said.

Within the past year, the district faced significant financial strain. Measure A, which introduced a parcel tax of $69 per parcel for ambulance services, didn’t pass in last year’s general election after it didn’t receive a two-thirds support of the overall vote. In March, an Ad Hoc Committee’s findings reported that the district had $337,000 underbilled and underpaid in ambulance reimbursements from January 2023 to March 2025.

The committee presented two options for the district: continue its ambulance operations but make significant financial and structural adjustments or shift away from EMS and move towards broader healthcare initiatives.

“We need to explain or help our community understand what it really looks like, now that Measure [A] didn’t pass,” Casteel said. “What it truly looks like is a very possible, foreseeable closure of Westside Ambulance.”

Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County