O’Brien County, Iowa — Northwest Iowa’s rural communities are losing emergency service volunteers and more and more small towns are relying on bigger hospitals farther away.
Experts tell us the reality is that someday, when you call 911, there may not be anyone to respond, or those that do respond will be located several miles away from the emergency.
Jared Johnson, the Emergency Management Director for O’Brien County says their goal is to help support the city-owned ambulance services within O’Brien County so that the ambulance services can stay operational. Right now, he says O’Brien county ambulance services are trying to recruit new members and keep their current members for as long as possible. He says, “We greatly appreciate all of our local volunteers. We want to see the local ambulance services continue to operate so that they can provide quick response care to the general public.”
He tells us O’Brien County has been providing equipment funds to each ambulance service for several years. Currently each ambulance team in O’Brien County gets $7,500 added into their equipment account. He says the ambulance service can use the money in the equipment account for new ambulances, defibrillators, cots, CPR assist devices, cleaning equipment, or respiratory protection equipment. The money stays in accounts overseen by O’Brien County until the ambulance team is ready to withdraw the funds for an equipment purchase.
Johnson says “Several counties around us are looking at the new EMS Levy option. (Osceola County passed an EMS Levy this past year.) As of now, we are not planning to pursue the EMS Levy option this next fiscal year. The current funding that O’Brien County is providing through the General Budget is helping sustain and grow the current services without having to do a separate EMS Levy at this time.”
According to Johnson, the O’Brien County ambulance services are always looking for additional volunteers. He says if you are interested in learning more about volunteering, you can reach out to your local city office or speak with a current volunteer to get an application.
