CLARION — Citizens of Wright County will have the final say in August on how emergency medical services will be funded.

The Wright County Board of Supervisors recently set a date for a special election, which will ask voters to approve a property tax levy supporting EMS.

The election will be held Aug. 7.

If approved, residents would pay about 67.8 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

According to Jim Lester, Wright County emergency management coordinator, the overall cost of the plan is $586,652.

Currently, EMS is funded by the general fund of each city.

Declining volunteerism, decreased reimbursements, increased operational costs, and overall system losses, have contributed to the need for increased funding, according to Lester.

Ambulance services in Wright County are experiencing a combined loss of nearly $500,000, Lester reported.

In 2016, the city of Dows notified surrounding services that it would no longer be providing ambulance service, mainly due to lack of qualified staffing.

Ambulance services in Wright County log about 1,100 calls per year.

In August 2017, supervisors declared EMS an essential service.

“With the expected growth in Wright County, having well-trained and equipped ambulance services to respond to emergencies anywhere in the county is important,” Karl Helgevold, chairman of the Wright County Board of Supervisors, said.

Supervisors have since formed an EMS System Advisory Council.

Lester was named chairperson of that group.

The Advisory Council recommended that the Board of Supervisors establish agreements with Iowa Specialty Hospital to provide for a county EMS coordinator, a county medical director and a paramedic tier response vehicle based at the Clarion facility.

The county agreements with the ambulance services would be amended to provide additional funding for staffing, training and equipment.

“We are excited to be working with county and city leaders in making EMS essential in Wright County,” said Iowa Specialty Hospital CEO Steve Simonin. “While this plan doesn’t address all the issues facing rural emergency health care, it is a positive start and we’re hopeful the residents of the county will support it when they go to the polls in August.”

Lester added, “We’ve just crossed the first hurdle, it’s now up to the voters to confirm that EMS is essential.”