10/16/2026
Happy Friday! Fall is quickly approaching, and so is cold and flu season. Please take extra care when you are out, wash your hands regularly, and use hand sanitizer when needed. We want everyone to stay healthy and enjoy the fall weather.
The Tri-Village Joint Ambulance District levy is on the ballot, and its outcome will directly affect our ability to answer the next call for help. This funding is not about adding unnecessary services—it is about protecting the emergency care our community already depends on. We are asking for your support so trained professionals, dependable ambulances, and lifesaving equipment are ready when you or someone you love needs them most. We also believe you deserve clear answers and full transparency. If you have questions about the need, the cost, or how every dollar will be used, please speak with a board member or contact me directly.
The need is real. So far this year, our crews have answered 445 calls for service and transported 310 patients to local hospitals. Of those transports, 69% went to Wayne HealthCare, 25% to Reid Health, 2% to Kettering Health in Eaton, and 2% to a children’s hospital. Behind every number is a neighbor, a family, and a moment when waiting was not an option.
Our crews have also treated 135 patients in their homes, helping them avoid an unnecessary hospital trip. These calls include lift assists and care for diabetic emergencies, asthma attacks, falls, and other conditions requiring evaluation. We do not bill for non-transports; we provide that service because caring for our community means doing what is right for the patient. When we transport someone, we bill their health insurance and accept what the insurer pays. We never bill patients for deductibles or copays because an emergency should not become a financial crisis.
But compassion does not erase the cost of readiness. The average insurance payment we receive is approximately $368 per transport—and often less for Medicare or Medicaid patients. If a patient has no insurance, we receive no payment at all.
The average cost of a call, including payroll and all operational expenses, is approximately $734. That leaves an average gap of about $366 between the cost of a call and the insurance payment we receive. Insurance revenue alone cannot sustain the emergency service our district relies on. The levy is what helps close that gap and keeps help available around the clock.
That is the reality of EMS: we cannot build the system after the emergency begins. It must already be staffed, equipped, and ready.
That readiness requires staffing ambulances 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It requires trained paramedics and EMTs, along with wages, workers’ compensation, payroll taxes, and other required employment costs. It also requires overtime to maintain coverage through staffing shortages, high call volumes, back-to-back emergencies, and major incidents. No matter the hour or the circumstances, someone must be ready to answer the call.
The cost also includes ambulances, maintenance, repairs, equipment rental, fuel, tires, insurance, and future vehicle replacement. It covers cardiac monitors, stretchers, radios, airway and oxygen equipment, suction units, pumps, medications, IV supplies, bandages, infection-control materials, disposable supplies, and other essential patient-care equipment.
It includes training, continuing education, certifications, medical direction, licensing, compliance, quality assurance, clinical oversight, billing, accounting, software, communications, utilities, facility expenses, and long-term planning for ambulances, medical equipment, and communication systems.
Even when an ambulance is not transporting a patient, the cost of readiness does not stop. Crews must remain on duty. Ambulances must be maintained. Equipment must be checked. Medications must be stocked. Radios must work. The service must be ready the moment the next emergency occurs.
Readiness is not a luxury. It is the promise that when seconds matter, help is already on the way.
This is why your support matters. Rural families should never receive a lower standard of emergency care simply because of where they live. Our residents deserve the same fast, dependable, professional response available in larger communities. A vote for this levy is a vote to protect the people who answer the call—and every neighbor who may need them.
Please vote to support the Tri-Village Joint Ambulance District levy. Emergencies do not wait for convenient timing, and our ambulances cannot wait for dependable funding. Your support will help keep qualified crews on duty, lifesaving equipment in service, and emergency care available every hour of every day. If you have questions or concerns, reach out to us. We are ready to explain the need, the numbers, and exactly how the funding will be used.
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