TOWER- The possibility of a joint taxing district for the Tower Area Ambulance Service remains a subject of investigation but the ambulance commission here took no action on the idea at their quarterly meeting on Monday.
Meanwhile, the city of Tower has moved closer to an agreement with Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital to assist with administrative duties for the ambulance service.
Mayor Dave Setterberg and councilor Kevin Norby have been working with the hospital, and Setterberg told the commission that they will have a draft agreement for the city council to review at their July 13 meeting. The draft has been reviewed by both the city clerk and interim ambulance director Jen McDonough, and now is getting a final review by the city attorney.
“We have gone over both our priorities,” Setterberg told members of the commission on Monday. For Tower, this includes help with medical training for EMTs and EMRs, help with purchasing supplies and disposal of hazardous materials, and assistance with billing patients. Since the hospital is a nonprofit, they would be able to provide supplies and services to the ambulance at their cost, Setterberg said, which would save Tower’s service money. As for billing, Setterberg noted that hospital staff doesn’t currently bill for ambulance runs, but they do have a lot of experience with medical billing. Tower currently contracts with an outside service for billing, which charges three percent of all the monies they collect.
Cooperation between the two entities could also open up some new grant opportunities that would benefit both entities, he said. The hospital could benefit by having Tower take more of its inter-hospital transfers. Setterberg said the agreement would also give Ely a better look at the sprint medic program, something they might be interested in bringing to the Ely-Babbitt area. Ely and Babbitt each manage their own ambulance services, which are not overseen by the Ely Hospital.
“This would provide better service for our residents, provide enhanced training for our personnel, allow us to purchase cheaper supplies. It’s a great opportunity to look at,” added Setterberg.
McDonough said the partnership has a lot of potential, but suggested that change might be hard for some members. She noted that the agreement would not change a patient’s ability to get transported to the hospital of their choice.
Joint powers update
Ambulance commission chair Bob Anderson is working with an attorney who has worked on establishing both joint powers and special taxing districts, but he said he still has some major unanswered questions before the board can actually have a substantive discussion of the pros and cons of either of these options. The third option is to keep operating the service unchanged.
He noted the research is taking a significant amount of time, and he feels he doesn’t have enough free time, outside of his work and city council commitments, to thoroughly research the issue.
A special taxing district would set a levy based on property values, but Anderson said the amount of property value taxed is lower than the amount considered for regular property taxes. A joint powers board would have the authority to set an assigned fee per property that includes a residence. Anderson has been talking to Floodwood, which created a special taxing district. He said the Floodwood Fire Chief said the actual amount of additional taxes paid by the residents in their taxing district was basically the same with a taxing district compared to if they formed a joint powers board.
In either option, townships would have to choose to join the new district. In Floodwood, the neighboring Fond du Lac Band pays an annual donation, similar to the process in place right now with the Bois Forte Band.
If a special taxing district is created, Tower needs to give up their license to operate an ambulance service, and then would send out requests for other entities, or even perhaps the city of Tower, to oversee the service. The actual ambulance service area would remain the same.
One issue with the joint powers board option would mean a loss of certain state funding, Anderson said.
Anderson said they have yet to talk with ambulance personnel, or with other potential parties that might be interested in running the service.
The commission will be assembling a list of additional questions, and they hope to have the attorney present, via zoom, to answer questions at an upcoming meeting. The next regular meeting of the commission is not until Oct. 5.
Staffing updates
McDonough had excellent reports for department staffing. The department, as of March 1, has had on-call staff 24/7, and year-to-date, the percentage is almost 99 percent. Even better, she said, in every case so far this year where there have been two calls at the same time, both calls have been staffed. This means department members who were not on-call were able to respond.
“I am really proud of our team,” she said.
The department has added three new EMTs, 2 new EMRs, and 1 driver since January. In addition, three current EMRs are taking the classes needed to become certified as EMTs. She said having the sprint medic program in place is helping these EMRs with their new training, since they get to observe more advanced care in the field.
The sprint medic program has added Saturday coverage for the summer, and they are continuing to build strong relationships with the paramedics on duty in Tower.
Additionally, the department has done 30 inter-facility transfers so far this year, which creates positive net revenue. Call volume is just slightly higher than this time last year, with 265 calls, versus 258 in 2025 as of July 6.
Ambulance department finances are also more stable, with a current bank balance of $134,000 in their operating fund.
Other actions
The commission voted to move ahead with researching the cost of replacing the chassis on the 2019 rig. The rig was designed with a box that could be mounted on a new chassis. The current chassis is nearing the end of its lifespan with over 110,000 miles, but the box is still in fine shape. The commission will get some quotes on the cost. There is currently $116,000 in the ambulance replacement fund. The newer ambulance, a 2023, still has about four years of service left before the commission needs to look at a replacement.