This is the first article in continuing coverage of a proposed ambulance district for Lincoln and Turner County.
By Garrett Ammesmaki,
Editor
A question of fairness was a recurring theme at Wednesday’s informational meeting for the proposed Lincoln-Turner County Ambulance District.
Roughly 70 people from Lennox and the surrounding areas came to the Lennox Senior Center to discuss aspects of the proposal, including why it might be needed and how it would effect their taxes and communities.
Early in the meeting, Lennox City Administrator Nate Vander Plaats outlined a few reasons as to why an ambulance district is being considered.
Emergency medical service calls are on the rise in the area, with the most noticeable increase being outside of Lennox, Vander Plaats said. And, as equipment gets older, or ambulance staffers leave, there will be an inevitable decline in the effectiveness of emergency care.
“If we really want to keep this region safe as it grows, it makes sense to look at long-term sustainable medical services,” he said.
Alongside that need for sustainable emergency care, there is also the question of fairness.
Currently, the Lennox Area Ambulance covers roughly 189 square miles of territory. That territory includes parts of Chancellor, Worthing, as well as rural areas in Lincoln County and some parts of Turner County.
To cover that territory, the Lennox Area Ambulance operates at a loss of roughly $30,000 to $80,000 per year, which is to be expected. The problem is that, as of right now, Lennox taxpayers are the only one’s footing the bill.
“I think one of the issues we’re trying to solve here is an issue of equity,” Vander Plaats said. “If you live in Lennox, you’re paying for ambulance services for the other 187 square miles of this area.”
Though the ambulance service does an annual fundraising effort, they have continually received “very little” in terms of compensation or donations from surrounding townships, according to Alan Perry, director for Lennox Area Ambulance.
To solve the question of equity, the proposed ambulance district would impose a tax levy to shift a portion of the cost from the citizens of Lennox to taxpayers and landowners in rural areas and other townships.
That levy is currently estimated to end up at $0.50 per $1,000 of a property’s valuation, but it could go higher.
The exact amount of the levy would depend on a decision by an elected board of the ambulance district.
If the levy ended up being $0.50, Jamie Boomgarden, of Chancellor, would end up paying an increase of around $300 a year in taxes.
“That’s the lower edge of what people are going to experience,” he said. “People that own the farmland — they’re going to owe substantially more.”
The levy would be the same for both agricultural and residential property valuations.
The exact amount of the levy would depend on a decision by an elected board of the ambulance district. That board would only be elected if the ambulance district is approved.
If the levy ended up being $0.50, Jamie Boomgarden, a citizen of the Chancellor area, would end up paying an increase of around $300 a year in taxes due to the current valuation of his property.
“That’s the lower edge of what people are going to experience,” he said. “People that own the farmland — they’re going to owe substantially more.”
The levy would be the same for both agricultural and residential property valuations.
While Boomgarden questioned whether it was fair that rural residents pay the levy on valuations of agricultural land, it wasn’t the main issue he had with the proposed district.
To him, it seems nothing will be certain or set in stone unless the ambulance district is voted into place.
“The biggest problem I have is -- I don’t know what we’d be voting for,” he said. “There’s just no details in the bill; here you are voting for the bill to find out what the bill is going to be.”
And, though an ambulance district could shift some of the financial burden away from Lennox taxpayers, there is a slight possibility it would end up costing them more money.
While Lennox taxpayers already pay for the ambulance service, they would also be subject to any tax levy imposed by an ambulance district.
Vander Plaats has recommended to the Lennox City Council that the property tax be lowered for residents by the same amount of the ambulance district levy. But, as a woman from the crowd pointed out, that’s not necessarily what would happen.
Though Vander Plaats recommends that the council lower the property tax, the council is not required to follow his recommendation.
If that were to happen, Lennox citizens would be effectively “double-dipped” for taxes when it came to ambulance service.
Under the presumption that members of the city council have their constituents best interests at heart, the ambulance district would indeed transfer some of the tax burden away from the citizens of Lennox — the end goal being more efficient emergency care throughout the area.
“We’re trying to be the least burdensome to the tax payers, but give patients the best possible outcome for their medical needs,” Perry said.
Currently, the Lennox ambulance runs with 60 percent of its operating hours covered by volunteers. Several of those volunteers are college students, a couple are older, and “with the call volume going up, it’s getting harder and harder to find volunteers.”
Lennox Paramedic Brenda Sinning spoke on a possible staffing shortage at the meeting.
The 60-year-old said she isn’t the only person nearing retirement age that works for the Lennox ambulance.
A district would allow the ambulance to move away from a volunteer model by paying for a fully-staffed crew, and guarantee enough funding to keep equipment updated and repaired.
“Right now, we don’t need a new ambulance shop, we don’t need a new ambulance, yet,” Vander Plaats said. “That’s why we want to establish that capital levy early, in order to build up funds for when that does eventually happen.”
James Ronke approves of the ambulance district. He lives on a homestead outside of Lennox.
Ronke said he weighed the positives and negatives of the district, and understands the issues facing the City of Lennox and the Lennox Ambulance Service.
“I have no problem with the district,” he said. “If I have a need for an ambulance, I’d like for it to be there.”
Currently, Lennox, Worthing and Chancellor have approved for a vote on the ambulance district. The next step is for the Turner and Lincoln County Commissioners to vote. Afterward, it will be in the hands of the residents that the district would service.
Vander Plaats said the process could take from one to two years.