(Bedford-Lenox) -- With an emphatic yes, Taylor County voters have backed implementing a new funding source for emergency medical services in the county.
Unofficial results from the Taylor County Auditor's Office for Tuesday's city-school elections show the implementation of an EMS essential service property tax levy well surpassing a 60% majority requirement, receiving 994 yes votes, or 71.6%, to 393 no votes, or 28.3%. With the voters' approval, plans call for implementing a county-wide, 60-cent-per-thousand-dollars valuation property tax levy, with the funds reserved for various EMS agencies throughout the county. Taylor County Ambulance Service Director Jan Beach-Sickels is among those relieved to see the essential service levy pass and extended her thanks to voters for their support of EMS agencies in the county.
"I am relieved that we have an opportunity to improve our services here, develop a system so that we have the coverage that we need in the county," said Beach-Sickels. "We have a lot of planning and a lot of work we can do before that so we're ready for the funds."
Plans call for the levy to take effect during fiscal year 2027, with the funds then available to EMS agencies in fiscal year 2028. Until then, Beach-Sickels says plenty of planning will commence with the formation of an EMS Advisory Council, comprised of representatives from each community in the county, which will oversee and allocate the funding.
"Our advisory council will be putting into place more guidance and just trying to develop what our goals are first," Beach-Sickels explained. "Then, they'll start figuring out how we're going to designate funds and what we want our system to look like."
Beach-Sickels says the property tax levy is expected to generate around $300,000 each year. She says those funds will be crucial for the smaller, volunteer agencies in the county, which currently receive little to no government funding and rely heavily on fundraising efforts.
"We want to make sure that they have the equipment and supplies that they need," Sickels emphasized. "Also, we really want to recruit so that we can get people into classes and build a system with first responders or emergency medical responders or EMTs in each of the communities. Even if they don't have an ambulance, they can be providing care until a transporting ambulance can get there."
Taylor County Ambulance Service was formed through a partnership between the county and CHI Medical Clinics in Bedford and Lenox 13 years ago, with CHI providing staff for ambulances in both communities. However, Beach-Sickels notes that having trained EMTs and EMS agencies throughout the county is particularly important, given the county's lack of a hospital.
"Without a hospital in the county, we don't have that local support system that can be in place like in a lot of the other counties," said Beach-Sickels. "So we really rely on our EMS even more because of the distance to get to a hospital."
The levy will remain in effect for 15 years before it needs to be reconsidered. Taylor County joins over 20 other counties across the state that have designated EMS an "essential service" after an Iowa law passed in 2021 allowed counties to implement the designation and funding source--so long as it receives 60% voter approval as a ballot question.