Lake Mills weighs two choices for EMS contract

The proposals offer similar levels of service to the city. Both ensure one ambulance stationed in Lake Mills, available 24/7 and staffed at a paramedic level. The city’s current agreement with Lake Mills EMS, which will cease its service at the end of June, promises one ambulance at the Advanced EMT level, which is beneath paramedic. Both Ryan Brothers and Cambridge Area EMS, the commission’s EMS department, also house ambulances in nearby municipalities that could assist in Lake Mills if needed.

The Ryan Brothers proposal is likely the cheaper option, coming in at between $29.50 and $43 per capita annually, though it comes with a $30,000 start-up cost and rates would go up if the city asked for a contract shorter than three years. The Cambridge Area EMS option ranges from $40 to $60 per capita.

Exact costs will depend on what area townships decide to do—the towns of Lake Mills, Aztalan, Milton and Waterloo are also shopping for options as LMEMS coverage comes to an end—and whether an ambulance can be housed in the Lake Mills Fire Department station.

Because the city has decided to seek a contracted service, that is what the Cambridge area department is offering now. But the commission would like to bring the city in as a full member, CAEMS chief Paul Blount said. Blount pointed to the increasing labor and cost concerns affecting many communities in the area.

“We believe in sharing the financial burden, the personnel burden, the life-saving burden,” Blount told the council at a Feb. 21 meeting. “Our end goal would be to bring you into the district for the long term. If you take a one-year contract, that’s a one-year bandaid. If it’s two years, you’re going to be back here in two years.”

Council President Greg Waters has expressed interest in seeking a regionalized solution to EMS service. He and other council members called a contracted service a “short-term fix” when the decision was made not to pursue a joint fire and EMS department in the city this year.

“In the future, we may have a bigger scope to look at as far as Jefferson County goes,” Waters said after that decision in January.

But in late February, city manager Drake Daily confirmed that the city of Lake Mills is not interested in joining the commission long-term, because the Cambridge commission gives equally-weighted votes to each municipality regardless of size. Daily said that due to the city’s population, it would seek increased representation, or look elsewhere.

On the other hand, Ryan Brothers pitched their operation as an efficient corporate structure that could keep prices low. The company has about 20 ambulances and 100 employees, Cody Letson, one of the Ryan Brothers presenters to the council.

“We wouldn’t have to hire additional staff. We do our own training, we have our medical director, our billing, our HR in-house,” Letson said. “What that does is we’re always significantly cheaper because we aren’t contracting out.”

Both Ryan Brothers and CAEMS said they would work towards building a productive relationship with the Lake Mills Fire Department, including allowing that department to operate its own ambulance in the city. The city purchased and licensed a fire department ambulance last year, and would likely use it as a second unit when needed.

Whatever choice the city makes, it will need to do so relatively quickly. State law requires that an operational plan be submitted for the new coverage at least 60 days before that coverage begins.

City Administrator Drake Daily told representatives from CAEMS and the townships in February that the council hopes to make a decision at its second March meeting, scheduled for March 21.