Rural ambulances appeal to Minnehaha County to sustain gains as commissioners hold outside agency funding flat

At the Minnehaha County budget meeting, rural ambulance leaders asked commissioners to keep funding steady and to consider targeted increases later as part of a regional efficiency strategy.

Curtis Nelson, director of Garretson Ambulance, and representatives from Dell Rapids and other rural services said call volumes have surged and that the county's recent funding increases helped stabilize services. "We're tracking closer to 600 now," a Dell Rapids representative said when describing annual call volume trends. Speakers warned that older volunteer-heavy staffing models no longer sustain service levels and that replacement ambulances and medical equipment have become markedly more expensive. "Our last truck we bought 10 years ago was a 180,000. We're looking at over 300,000 right now for the same ambulance," a rural EMS representative said.

Commissioners generally said they did not want to reduce outside-agency support and favored carrying forward 2025 funding levels as the baseline. Several commissioners encouraged grant-seeking, efficiencies and a state-funded regional-service study: Garretson and partner agencies were awarded a Department of Health regional-service designation grant to examine sustainable EMS models for Minnehaha and surrounding counties, presenters said.

The commission asked staff to consider whether a tax district or ambulance district is appropriate over the longer term and asked ambulance leaders for more concrete data on budgets and joint-service opportunities before approving any new increases.

What's next: staff and EMS leaders will continue work on the regional-service grant study and provide commissioners with more detailed budget breakdowns and options for efficiencies at future budget meetings.

Sources: Remarks by Curtis Nelson, Dell Rapids representative, and commissioners during outside-agency portion of Minnehaha County budget meeting.