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MANISTIQUE-- Schoolcraft County voters will have the opportunity on Nov. 7, 2023, to decide whether to keep the emergency medical services (EMS) that operate out of Manistique. In order to maintain the current services -- advanced life support ambulances that cover the county and reach nearly 8,000 residents -- taxes would be increased by 2.25 mills ($2.25 per $1,000 of taxable property value) for a period of five years. If the item on the ballot fails in November, it may be presented again in March; if it fails for a second time, ambulance services will likely cease in summer 2024.
Unlike police and fire, EMS is not legally considered an essential service. Despite the expensive, life-saving medical equipment they carry and skilled, trained professionals, ambulances are just considered transportation. Taxpayer money is not allowed to be used to fund EMS unless a millage like the one proposed passes. Without federal ruling, municipalities -- and critically injured individuals -- are on their own.
"Out of the approximately 60 ambulance services in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, about 95% are government-run, either through a township, a county or a city, and of that, 95% of them have operating millages," said Manistique City Manager Corey Barr. "The city of Manistique has never gone out and asked for an operating millage for countywide ambulance service."
According to Barr, the city treasury revealed in January that there was not enough revenue to offset expenses and requested a corrective action plan and deficit elimination plan. To mitigate current issues, the Schoolcraft County Board of Commissioners agreed upon ballot language that will appear to voters in November. The proposed millage, which would draw money "for operating and capital funds for ambulance services throughout the county," is expected to accrue $955,592 in its first year if levied in 2023. The fund could be used for EMT and paramedic wages and benefits, fuel, new ambulances, on-board equipment and related necessities. Barr said that if it passes, the first item on the agenda would be to ensure that equipment aboard Schoolcraft County's four existing ambulances was reliable. Second would be to prepare a remote unit based farther east.
Registered ambulances are required to not only respond to all 911 calls, but also transport patients out from one hospital to another if they end up needing treatments not available at Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital. It is not uncommon for ambulances from the City of Manistique EMS to shuttle patients to Green Bay, Wis. or Petoskey, Mich. A single round-trip journey to either of those locations eats up six hours. This stretches the few available ambulances even thinner in a crisis known to be present in numerous communities around the United States.
Some small township-run EMS rely on volunteers who keep day jobs.
In Barr's words, "the whole system is broken."
Private ambulance services in the area are provided by UP Health System out of Marquette and Rampart EMS (a subsidiary of UP Health System) out of Escanaba. They, too, struggle to keep up with demand. Barr said that in addition to driving all over Schoolcraft County -- which is the fourth largest county by land mass in the State of Michigan -- the ambulance service from Manistique also answers 911 calls from neighboring counties.