Chickasaw County to Ask Cities for Partial Ambulance Payment

Chickasaw County will be asking the cities it “contractually” serves with Chickasaw County EMS to make a partial payment to start the new year.

The County has 28E agreements with New Hampton, Fredericksburg, Bassett, Ionia, Lawler and North Washington, to help subsidize the County’s ambulance service, with those cities to make payments to the County every three months. However, the County can waive payments when the EMS operating cash fund is $750,000 or higher for two consecutive quarters. Yet, even with that fund falling below that number, Supervisors have rarely asked for a payment since the ambulance launched January 1, 2023.

During their meeting Monday (10.19), the Board of Supervisors and EMS Director Joel Knutson discussed having the cities make a payment with the pool cash fund slipping to just over $400,000.

Knutson also said another $76,000 will be spent early next year towards that new ambulance. Still, he was confident of the financial standing for EMS.

With the current operating balance at its lowest level ever, and with another $164,000 towards the new ambulance to be paid late next year, Supervisors voted to have the cities to plan on a “half payment” of about $150,000, which is the combined payment for all six cities. Supervisors also discussed the County making a payment of $70,000, anticipated to come from the RSV budget, though nothing official was voted on.

Supervisors are also looking towards the next 28Es with the cities, with Board Chair Jacob Hackman acknowledging a letter from the City of New Hampton.

With the next agreement, Supervisors have previously discussed dropping the payment “trigger level” to $500,000, but no changes will be made until they’ve met with the cities as to what the next 28E agreement may look like.