Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Editor’s note: This is the first story in a three-part series explaining the ambulance millage request that will be on the Gogebic County ballot in the Nov. 6 election.
By RALPH ANSAMI
Bessemer — While Michigan’s November mid-term elections feature many races on the state and national level, a millage question is crucial to Gogebic County voters.
Voters are being asked to approve one mill over the next three years for ambulance services. For the first year, the mill would raise $523,548 countywide.
Without the millage, the county is in danger of losing ambulance service, presently provided by Beacon Ambulance.
Unlike Wisconsin, Michigan law does not require a county to provide ambulance service, but without it, everything from grandma slipping in the shower to economic development efforts could suffer.
Approval of the millage would trigger establishing an emergency services authority to administer ambulance contracts, with bids being advertised for the service.
The millage request is not based on any one ambulance service and does not directly provide financial assistance to a provider, but establishes the authority panel that will select the provider through a formal bid process and then oversee the contract and service.
This week, Jim Lorenson, who chairs the Aspirus Ironwood Hospital board, talked about the proposal with the Daily Globe and county officials at a one-hour session at the Gogebic County Courthouse in Bessemer. He has been involved in the issue for months, since Beacon announced its losses were mounting.
Lorenson said Beacon Ambulance records that have been verified document losses of $50,000 per month for 911 calls. Ambulance services also provide benefits not related to 911 calls, however, such as CPR training, standby at events and nursing home assistance.
If an ambulance driver responds to a fall in a home and the injured person is not transported to the hospital, for example, there is no reimbursement to the company.
Factors like that, and difficulty in staffing response crews, have made providing ambulance services challenging.
Gogebic County Prosecutor Nick Jacobs submitted the following wording for the proposal, later approved by the county board of commissioners: “Shall the limitation on the total amount of taxes which may be assessed against all property in the County of Gogebic be increased by an amount not to exceed one mill ($1 per $1,000 of state taxable valuation) for a period of three years, 2019-’21 inclusive, the taxes to be raised to be used exclusively to pay for ambulance services within Gogebic County. If levied, the one mill will raise an estimated $523,548 in the first year.”
The millage ballot language was approved by the county board on a 6-0 vote, with board chair George Peterson, of Watersmeet, absent at the Aug. 8 regular monthly meeting.
The $523,548 figure is based on the 2017 county taxable value.
The effect on individual taxpayers will be $50 in added taxes on a home valued at $50,000, $30 for a home valued at $30,000, or $100 on property valued at $100,000, for example.
Those amounts are for each year.
Next: Ambulance calls and services provided throughout the county.
