International Falls council says ambulance service under review as residents press concerns about dispatch and costs

International Falls city leaders and residents spent substantial time Thursday discussing the future of the city’s ambulance service and its cost to taxpayers. Public commenters urged the council to review how emergency dispatching is organized and to address what they described as rising debt tied in part to ambulance operations.

At a public-comment period, Tyler Weir, who identified himself as a correctional officer and 9-1-1 dispatcher but said he spoke as a taxpayer, said the current setup creates duplication: “In a medical crisis, every second matters. So what I would like to know is why is the city paying for an additional dispatch when the county does it already?” He also said the city is “$2,000,000 in the hole” and criticized recent wage increases and the city administrator’s pay as outsize for a city of…