New ambulance district established

On Sunday, Oct. 27, a public organizational meeting was held to establish a new rural ambulance district for the region.

The district’s creation is required by a state law from the 2023 legislative session, with the purpose of guaranteeing emergency services throughout North Dakota.

The new rural ambulance district will operate similarly to a rural fire district, in that they are a political subdivision in charge of contracting with first responder organizations to provide emergency services for the region.

The new district will cover the same area currently served by the Community Ambulance Service of New Rockford (CASNR), and in due course the new district is expected to sign a contract with CASNR to serve as the region’s official emergency response service.

In other words, there will now be a separate entity overseeing ambulance services for Eddy County and parts of Foster and Wells counties.

Statewide, the establishment of these new districts gives regions the flexibility to contract with different ambulance services as necessary.

Additionally, if voters agree to give a new ambulance district the authority to levy taxes, they would also have newfound financial flexibility to help retain and/or improve local emergency services.

Voters within the new district’s service area will vote on that very question sometime next year in a special election.

On Sunday, five individuals were elected to the new district’s board of directors – Carey Schaefer, John Heinz, Jeff Pfau, Todd Allmaras and Linda Lies.

Lies was then elected president, Schaefer was elected the vice president and Jeff Pfau was elected secretary/treasurer.

The new board members, along with Eddy County Auditor Becki Schumacher and CASNR manager Angie Hopfauf, discussed the future election and it was decided that it would likely take place early next year – perhaps in mid-February – though no official date was set.

The question on the ballot at that special election will propose that the newly-formed New Rockford EMS Tax District will have the authority to levy taxes, up to 15 mills.

If approved, the tax levied by the new district would replace the taxes currently levied by Eddy County for EMS.

The board members stressed that the number of volunteers at CASNR will likely allow them to avoid tax increases in the near future. However, if CASNR ever needs to hire full-time staff, tax authority of up to 15 mills could give them the financial flexibility to do so.

Eddy County currently levies 6.4 mills – or approximately $108,750 – for EMS services annually.

Before adjourning their meeting on Sunday, board members discussed potential names for the new district.

The board members wanted to choose a name that describes their full service area rather than just one community or county, and the favorite seemed to be “Two Rivers Rural Ambulance District,” named for the James and Sheyenne rivers which flow through the region.

If that name isn’t available, a second option would be “East Central Rural Ambulance District.”

At their next meeting – which has been scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. – board members will look at scheduling the special election and establishing bylaws for the new entity.