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Webster County adopts EMS essential‑service plan, votes to create EMS coordinator position
Summary
After months of advisory work, the Webster County Board of Supervisors approved an EMS essential‑service plan, a 28E template for interagency agreements and the creation of a county EMS coordinator position to help stabilize staffing, billing and training for local ambulance and first‑responder services.
The Webster County Board of Supervisors voted Sept. 23 to adopt an EMS essential‑service plan recommended by the county’s EMS advisory council, approve a 28E template to guide interagency service agreements and authorize creation of a county EMS coordinator position subject to human‑resources review.
Matt Price, Fort Dodge fire chief and a member of the EMS advisory council, told the board the recommendations respond to a multiyear effort to stabilize local emergency medical services. “Patient care is the number 1 priority of this whole thing,” Price said, summarizing the council’s mission and the rationale for creating a countywide structure to manage funding, training and equipment.
Price said the council’s initial budget estimate for year one is about $1.6 million, with roughly $100,000 earmarked for an EMS coordinator and another $100,000 for non‑transport first‑responder agencies. The remainder would be distributed to transport services using a formula tied to coverage areas and assessed values used by the Department of Management. “We need to prioritize staffed ambulances to cover the county,” he said, citing shortages in personnel, training and equipment that advisory meetings found since 2021.
Supervisors asked how the plan would adapt when new providers seek funding. Price and County Attorney Darren Driscoll said the template and the formula are intended to be repeatable but adjustable. Driscoll said major purchases (for example, an ambulance or building) would be executed by separate agreement and would draw from the same pooled funding. He also recommended adding routine HR and legal review when hiring the coordinator.
Otho Fire Chief Marty Smith urged the board to treat new local providers as transport agencies if they already perform ambulance service. “I don’t agree with that at all,” Smith said of a proposal to classify Otho as a non‑transport agency for the first year, arguing the difference could be “between $10,000 to $75,000” and that Otho has already purchased equipment out of its fire budget. Board members asked Otho to submit a formal proposal for the council to evaluate at its next meeting.
Board action included three formal votes. The board approved creating the EMS coordinator position (subject to Webster County Human Resources review), adopted the EMS plan as the county’s essential‑service framework and approved the 28E template to govern operations and funding allocations. Each motion carried on voice vote; detailed roll‑call tallies were not recorded in the meeting transcript.
The board and advisory council said next steps include posting and classifying the EMS coordinator position with county HR, finalizing 2080/transport and non‑transport templates for individual entities, and receiving any service proposals (for example, from Otho) for formal evaluation and map adjustments. The board retains authority to approve specific 28E/2080 agreements before funds are distributed.
