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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Board rejects participation in ambulance joint powers

Jodi Summit
Posted 5/10/23

GREENWOOD TWP- “We are asking you to join an organization, to come to the table, and be part of the solution,” Tower city council member Kevin Norby told the Greenwood Town Board on …

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Board rejects participation in ambulance joint powers

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GREENWOOD TWP- “We are asking you to join an organization, to come to the table, and be part of the solution,” Tower city council member Kevin Norby told the Greenwood Town Board on Tuesday. His comments came during discussion of the request by an ad hoc committee of the Tower Ambulance Commission to take part in establishing a joint powers board for the ambulance service. “Be part of the solution. It is harder to be part of the solution and not just complain about it.”
But the Greenwood Town Board left no question on where they stood on the issue.
“We started out asking for shorter response times, a higher level of service, and to not be in the ambulance business,” said chairman John Bassing. “Being in a joint powers is being in the ambulance business.”
Supervisor Barb Lofquist said the idea “won’t fly if it goes by property value [as a funding mechanism].”
Norby said the funding mechanism could be a set fee, assessed per parcel, like the county’s solid waste fee. The proposal sent out by the ad hoc committee does look at a funding stream based on a property value assessment.
“These are options that can be discussed,” he said.
Norby noted that the planning process, moving forward, will be an open process, unlike the initial planning done by the ad hoc committee behind closed doors.
Greenwood supervisors expressed little interest in Norby’s plea, and unanimously approved a motion opposed to the ad hoc committee’s proposal and declining to participate in the planning process.
A second motion, requesting that the city of Tower solicit proposals seeking a private ambulance service to take over the Tower coverage area, with the stipulation that part-time ALS service is provided, and that Greenwood would look at subsidizing the cost also passed unanimously.
“We want to see if there is anyone out there,” said Bassing. “We are out of the ambulance business. We want to upgrade service.”
Norby said the city would certainly need to know how much of a subsidy Greenwood was willing to provide before soliciting such a request.
This discussion followed an earlier discussion.
Resident Lee Peterson told the board he didn’t see the TAAS as a sustainable organization and claimed they were close to having to shut down.
“Before long TAAS will have to notify the EMSRB that they are giving up their license,” he said. “Then we can get the map redrawn. The ambulance service is going to cost substantial amounts either way. A private service would keep the peace better than a joint powers board.”
Supervisor Sue Drobac asked Peterson if he had verified that TAAS was giving up their license.
“According to the packet at their council meeting, it looked to me like TAAS has $5,000 and a little change in their account. They are basically broke. It is unsustainable as it is now. It is inevitable,” he said.
Norby, who was in the audience at the meeting, asked for permission to address these claims, and was allowed to speak a bit later in the meeting.
“I appreciate all the work Lee does in researching,” he said. “The ambulance service really does need a restructuring. But it needs to be done at the county or state level.”
Norby admitted that a joint powers board would be hard work.
“That’s why I showed up here. We are not working well together by just having letters in the paper.”
Norby refuted the claim that the service has run out of money.
“We are making payroll,” he said, and said the city was subsidizing the service with money from other funds.
“The money that comes in from insurance and Medicare just isn’t enough to keep the service running.”
Norby said if the TAAS did go out of business, the coverage area would most likely be divided up between Cook and Ely.
“This would mean longer response times,” he said. “Is it the right strategy to starve it out and hope the county and state can come in to save us?”
“We can keep a really good BLS (basic life support) service here,” Norby said, “and then pair it up with ALS in Greenwood.”
Norby said the ad hoc committee did contact Essentia to see if they would be interested in providing service, but that they told the group it wouldn’t help “their business model.” They noted that the Buhl coverage area that Essentia recently took over was between the hospitals in Virginia and Hibbing, and there was a need for transfer service to Duluth, so it was financially viable.
“Serving Tower wasn’t of interest to them,” Norby said.
The township did get some good news on the cost of the McGrath ambulance study, which the board felt did not address some of the major questions it had asked. After negotiating with Bassing, the group discounted the cost by 20-percent, saving the township a little over $11,000.
“We wanted to upgrade to a regional ALS service,” Bassing said. “The study didn’t address population changes, it overstated the number of staff McGrath would send to do the research, and it didn’t take into account that Greenwood was willing to pay a subsidy to a private ambulance service.”
“The report also said it saw no deficiencies with TAAS, but we saw issues with response times,” Bassing added.