(Guthrie Co) Guthrie County is in the process of creating a countywide EMS system.
Jotham Arber, Executive Director of Health Services for Guthrie and Audubon Counties, said about 18 months ago the cities of Panora and Stuart informed the county that they were struggling to meet the demand of calls, especially in the western part of the county. Arber explained, with the Governor’s bill that passed in 2021, the county was allowed to look at a tax that could be placed across the county in order to fund EMS and deem EMS an essential service. An EMS Advisory Council was then created to look at the gaps in services, how much money would be needed to tax, and where the county should be going in the next 10 to 15 years. Arber said the Council initially had three thoughts…
Arber said right now they are at the point where they are going to give the cities a RFP that outlines all of the things the county needs in order to cover the services, the response times and the equipment. Those RFPs will go to the Supervisors and ask that they levy at the 75-cents per thousand rate for EMS.
Arber said they are looking at, at least, 24/7 ambulance service coverage for the western part of the county and potentially 12-hour coverage toward the southwestern part of the county where they already have a volunteer service. He noted, they are also working on a volunteer non-transport service.
Arber said the most important thing any county can do is make sure their focus is on getting the residents the services they need.
Arber said the end of the February is the timeline the Supervisors were asking for something back so they can get it onto the ballot and figure out all of the next steps.
