Chickasaw County to Begin Laying Groundwork for Next Ambulance Agreement

Chickasaw County officials look to lay the groundwork on the next agreement with the cities it “contractually serves” with Chickasaw County EMS.

Current 28Es, with New Hampton, Fredericksburg, Bassett, Ionia, Lawler and North Washington, to help subsidize the County’s ambulance service, calls for the cities to make payments to the County every three months. However, those payments can be waived when the EMS operating cash fund is $750,000 or higher for two consecutive quarters. Yet, even with that fund falling below that number, Supervisors have rarely asked for a payment since the ambulance launched January 1, 2023.

During Monday’s (09.14) Supervisors meeting, EMS Joel Knutson presented a draft of a letter to send those cities about possible continuation of their arrangement, with some adjustments.

Supervisor Jake Hackman proposed having the current cities reply by December 31st.

While Hackman initially set a target of July 1, 2028 to start the next ambulance agreement, County Attorney David Laudner said it could happen earlier.

Supervisors asked Knutson if a letter should also be sent to the two cities which did not sign up with the current ambulance agreement: Nashua and Alta Vista.

Officials noted that, for the first 28E ambulance agreement, they were “flying blind” in setting the financial parameters because they didn’t have any prior reference. Knutson says they’re crunching the numbers to have more defined data to present to the cities when they meet with their City Councils on the next agreement.