County increase funding for ambulance service

Rock County Commissioners approved an additional $35,000 to two of the three ambulance services serving Rock County.
The increases will be effective this year.
The additional money for 2021 will be paid through reserves, auditor-treasurer Ashley Kurtz confirmed at the commissioners’ June 8 meeting.
Jasper Ambulance will receive an allocation of $5,000, up from $1,300.
Edgerton Ambulance will receive $2,500, up from $500.
Rock County Ambulance, based in Luverne, continues to receive $24,746.
The increases to Jasper and Edgerton were the result of a committee meeting between county officials and representatives from the three ambulance services. The group agreed to meet annually and will later draft a formal financial agreement going forward.
Commissioner Greg Burger served on the committee.
“We looked at the situation and we’ve been at $500 and $1,300 for way too long (since 2005). —Everything just flew under the radar,” he said. “This is our recommendation, in an effort to pick back up and get things where it belongs.”
The increased allocation means minimally an ambulance service will receive $2,500. The per section rate is currently $63.90.
Jasper Ambulance serves 79 sections in Rock County and Edgerton 34. The largest area, 391 sections, is covered by Rock County Ambulance.
Jasper Ambulance representative Jim Veldkamp and Jasper Mayor Mike Baustian talked with commissioners at their May 18 meeting. Veldkamp detailed the training each of Jasper’s 13 full-time ambulance volunteers and three in-coming volunteers undergo each year.
Veldkamp requested an allocation of $4,836, indicating the allocations would be placed in a capital expenditures fund for a replacement ambulance. This year Jasper replaced the current 15-year-old ambulance from allocations from Rock, Pipestone and Minnehaha counties, individual townships, community fundraisers and grants. Costs for a new ambulance average $250,000 to $300,000.
Annually commissioners allocate more than $113,000 to various organizations in Rock County. At the June 8 meeting, Oldre informed commissioners that the Rock County Veterans of Foreign Wars organization dissolved and would no longer receive the $300 allocation.