Times Republican During a meeting that clocked in at about an hour and 45 minutes but resulted in no official action from either governing body, the Marshalltown city council and the Marshall County Board of Supervisors gathered to discuss the future of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) on Tuesday night at city hall in Marshalltown.
By the conclusion, they seemed to have reached a general consensus on pursuing a 28E agreement between the city and county and a countywide ballot initiative to declare EMS an essential service and levy $0.75 per $1,000 of valuation, but it was repeatedly stressed that the parties involved have plenty of work left to do in the near future. Along with the city council, mayor and supervisors, city government and fire/EMS representatives from several of the smaller communities in Marshall County were in attendance along with UnityPoint Health-Marshalltown Interim Executive Director Ron Alston and several Marshalltown firefighters, who were abruptly dispatched on a service call about halfway through the meeting.
Marshalltown Fire Chief Christopher Cross, who has served as the leader of the EMS Task Force, spoke first and then answered a series of questions throughout the evening, explaining that the need for change has primarily arisen from the fact that UPH-Marshalltown, a private nonprofit hospital, loses approximately $1 million a year providing ambulance transport services. Last year, the city council and board of supervisors commissioned a study from Iowa EMS Consultants to assess the situation and present potential courses of action.
Other primary concerns, he said, are limited local control over decisions and transport decisions, risk exposure due to reliance on a third-party provider, declining volunteer participation in the smaller communities and less applications for professional fire departments like Marshalltown. A new system established under a 28E agreement would utilize the MFD as the “operational backbone,” provide countywide Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances, support volunteer departments by replacing supplies and transition toward a formal EMS district.
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