O’Brien County, Iowa — At a meeting held last month, the city council of Archer voted unanimously to disband the Archer Ambulance team, effective December 31st. The decision was made due to a lack of community members available to take training and answer ambulance calls.
Since last June, when three members of Archer’s ambulance team resigned, ambulance calls in the Archer area have been handled through the Back-Up Subdivision Plan that has been in force since January, 2011. That plan saw ambulances from Sheldon, Primghar and Sanborn answering calls in the Archer ambulance district. Archer and Sheldon Ambulance Team Director Kevin Miller, along with O’Brien County Emergency Management Coordinator Jared Johnson had indicated to the Archer council that the 2011 agreement would simply be put into effect on a permanent basis.
Last week Johnson and Miller appeared before the Sheldon city council to let them know how the Archer situation would be handled. During that meeting, council member Brad Hindt expressed his concern that the issue hadn’t come before the council earlier in the process. Hindt said he thought some meetings should be held to iron out details of such a permanent arrangement.
On Thursday, December 13th, a meeting was held to discuss the Archer Ambulance situation. Sheldon City Manager Sam Kooiker tells KIWA that the discussion is ongoing, and there will likely be at least one more meeting. Kooiker says that he, along with Sheldon council representatives Brad Hindt and Pete Hamill, Archer city council members Bill Engeltjes and Richard Ludeke, Dakota Brown and Krysten Haan from SCAT, Jared Johnson from O’Brien County Emergency Management, and Nancy McDowell from the O’Brien County Board of Supervisors were all in attendance at Thursday’s meeting. Kooiker says the outcome of the meeting was to ask Micah Schreurs, who serves as City Attorney for both Sheldon and Archer, to review the existing 2011 agreement, determine what form and approval process is necessary to properly ratify an agreement. Kooiker says this would help determine the basis for negotiation of a new agreement; and he says the coverage areas may be changed based on discussions Archer is having with the City of Sanborn.
Earlier this week the Archer city council voted to rescind their motion to disband their ambulance service at the end of the year, instead voting to disband at the end of February to allow time for the discussions to proceed with the other communities involved. That same night, the Paullina ambulance team was reduced to just two active members with the resignation of their current president.
Dwindling numbers of EMS volunteers isn’t a new problem. More than three years ago former O’Brien County EMA Coordinator Anne Koontz formed a county EMS task force to address the issue. The task force held several meetings in which the problem was discussed, but no long-term solutions were achieved. Sanborn and Primghar have each seen their ambulance service member numbers decrease. In an effort to help offset that situation, Sanborn Ambulance has teamed with the Sanborn Fire Department, and often uses firefighters as drivers for the ambulance service. In addition, Sanborn and Primghar services take turns covering weekend calls in both communities to allow each team’s members time off.
