Solving EMS crisis an emergency we can’t afford to wait on

For the past several months, this newspaper has written about the EMS crisis facing communities including some in Dodge County.

Whether it’s West Concord struggling to find volunteers and or staff, or Dodge Center Ambulance dealing with coming up with needed funds to help pay for capital equipment it’s no secret the local ambulances are in trouble.

Now officials from Dodge Center Ambulance and city officials, part of the so-called Primary Ambulance Service Area, have been negotiating to come up with a Taxing District which would vote on funding allocations each year, which would then be taxed on citizens based on their property value.

It would essentially be like a school district or city tax, just another line item, on your tax bill.

Sounds simple enough, except for the fact, at least two of the communities involved can’t seem to agree on the voting structure.

One community, Kasson, generally feels its votes should count for more, or at the very least feel it should get some sort of extra power, due to the community being larger. As we point out in our A1 story, at least one community feels it’s unfair.

We as a newspaper are not taking a stance on who is right and who is wrong. Quite honestly that is not the issue.

The issue is, as we reported, thousands and thousands of Dodge County residents are at risk of having to get their ambulance from far away communities, should a resolution not be reached, and the ambulance has to close its doors.

This to us is completely unacceptable. There is already a major crisis facing communities, who are struggling to find staff, and it’s extremely doubtful having an ambulance come from a further away community will somehow improve anything, including the precious seconds between someone surviving or not.

As a newspaper we sincerely hope the four communities negotiating the Taxing District will come together and come up with a solution which will be acceptable for everyone. As with any negotiation, both sides won’t get what they want.

But for the average person at home, I am sure they prefer a compromise versus having to wait longer the next time they pick up the phone and call 911 for an ambulance.