Ambulance support comes forward

The city of Carlton moved closer to adding a pair of full-timers to its ambulance service at the council meeting Wednesday.

Fire chief Derek Wolf reported roughly $206,000 in commitments from municipalities that use the service. The goal is $250,000 annually, which would be used to add two full-time emergency medical technicians beginning in 2024.

“I’m super-happy with the support,” Wolf told the newspaper afterward. “It really shows people understand the need.”

In February, the city asked surrounding municipalities to help fund the addition of two full-timers who would staff the ambulance during weekday hours.

The remainder of the schedule would continue to be filled using paid volunteers from the city’s pool of 60.

One of the full-time EMTs would also coordinate the service, scheduling the volunteers while also working to fortify, even expand, the service through fundraising and grant-writing. Currently, the services are all-volunteer, with a 10-hour-per-week manager.

Carlton officials still need to meet with Black Bear Casino Resort officials and the city of Wrenshall to discuss contributions to the fund. The city has asked for $9,075 from Black Bear and $9,537 from the city of Wrenshall.

So far, commitments for 2024 include:

-city of Carlton $54,023 (request: same).

-Atkinson Township $5,228 (request: $9,216).

-Blackhoof Township $4,000 (request: $17,096).

-Mahtowa Township $5,001 (request: same).

-Silver Brook Township $30,795 (request: same).

-Thomson Township $19,782 (request: same).

-Twin Lakes Township $76,395 (request: same).

-Sawyer Township 10,909 (request: same).

Wrenshall Township said it won’t meet any of the $8,167 requested of it and is the only municipality to outright deny the request. The fire and ambulance service requests are prorated based on past usage totals, determined by the number of calls in a given municipality.

An ambulance optimization report issued in February showed that operating the volunteer ambulance service was unsustainable for a service that has seen its call volume rise to roughly 700 calls for service annually.

Councilors were pleased with progress, but not ready to move on a vote to add the full-timers.

“It’s more money than what we’ve been getting,” councilor Brent Bodie said.

City clerk Carol Conway urged the board to seek multi-year commitments from the townships and municipalities served by the city’s ambulance service.

“I’m not comfortable hiring somebody and then we find out nobody’s going to commit the following year, and we’re like, ‘Sorry, we have to let you go,’” Conway said.

Some municipality officials Carlton has spoken to are hesitant to sign long-term commitments, board members said. But Wolf suggested three years would be appropriate. And board members coalesced around the idea of more marketing interactions, even a mailer, so that area residents would learn the degrees to which their municipalities are participating.

“You don’t want to have to pay for it, but when you need it, you need it,” Conway said.

Wolf agreed, saying after the meeting that he believed once residents learned more about the service they’d urge full support from their representative boards.

The board is also considering further incentivizing full participation, by lowering the per-call costs to residents of municipalities paying the full, requested freight.

“This is what we believe we need long-term to be sustainable,” Wolf said.

Carlton officials will present their case at the Wrenshall city council meeting on Wednesday, April 19. Carlton city councilors also agreed to arrange a full meeting in May to update and work to gain further support from surrounding municipalities.