Update on Richland County EMS

Several members of the public spoke in favor of keeping the Richland County EMS Service at last night’s (Monday) Richland County Executive & Finance Standing Committee meeting. Many have been patients served by the service who stated that the members of the EMS are caring, and local members of the community who know the area and residents. They also know the area and can get to the emergency quicker, as they know where the roads are.

Wisconsin law allows the county to levy outside of the allowable levy limit for a countywide emergency medical system per Wisconsin State Statue. Through discussions with municipalities served by the Rlchland Ambulance Service, it was found that many can no longer afford to provide this service and are asking Richland County to fund the service outside of the levy limit. The county has three options for how to approach levying outside of the limit. 

The first is a consolidation approach. The county would assume full responsibility for EMS provision across the county by consolidating all the municipal EMS agencies into a single county-level agency. 

The second is a supplemental approach. A countywide agency provides some EMS countywide to supplement those provided by municipalities and private agencies. 

The last is a distributed approach. The county provides central administration and funding to municipal or private EMS to ensure comprehensive coverage of the county 

Retired Chief Dana (day-nah) Sechler (seck-ler) from Strategic Management & Consulting, LLC gave a summary of the Innovation Grant available. However, the current deadline to apply is today. The next step is to look at it further to possibly prepare for applying for the next available funding round. The Innovation Grant program was created under 2023 Wisconsin Act 12. Any Municipality, including Towns, Cities, and Villages in Wisconsin, along with any County or Tribe can submit an application for an “Innovation Plan”, in which they intend to transfer or share services with another municipality, county, tribe, nonprofit organization, or private entity. A priority has been established for those entities that wish to apply for the Grant, specifically to fund initiatives associated with Public Safety, including Law Enforcement, Fire, and EMS. 

Dana then stated that before reviewing the options or models that can be considered for the provision of EMS within Richland County, it should be understood how much it costs to run an Ambulance Service. He stated that generally speaking, the expenses related to providing a full-time Paramedic level ambulance service 24 hour a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year with a legal crew, consisting of one Paramedic and one EMT or AEMT is $1 million per ambulance. He also suggested other grant and funding options.

County Administrator, Tricia Clements, reported that the county has an obligation to supply law enforcement and highway safety. They are not mandated to supply an ambulance service. She also reported that the ambulance service has run $114,000 over budget annually over the past three years. As of the first three months of 2026, they are running $9,100 over budget.

The consensus of the committee members was that they need more information and answers before making a decision.