CLARION — A tax levy to support emergency medical services in Wright County easily passed Tuesday night after a special election.

Almost 70 percent of the county voted to support the measure.

Unofficially, 577 voted yes. About 250 voted no.

A majority of the vote was needed for the levy to pass.

Residents will pay about 67.8 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to support EMS.

The overall cost of the plan is $586,652 annually.

The levy, which is now authorized for a period of five years, will go into effect after July of 2019, according to Jim Lester, chairperson of the Wright County EMS system advisory council.

“The voters that voted confirmed that EMS is essential and we will continue with our proposed plan and getting the agreements in place, and working on consistent and combined system standards and protocols and just keep moving forward with the proposal that we presented,” Lester said Tuesday night.

Karl Helgevold, Wright County supervisor, said he was pleased with the voter turnout.

“That speaks volumes,” he said. “Each community could be independent with their ambulance service and yet we can share resources and support each other. It really looks like the best plan that we have, and the people agreed with it.”

The additional funding will allow cities within the county to share training and other resources.

There will also likely be one medical director for the county.

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

Lester and Helgevold both said Wright County is the first county in Iowa to pass a levy of this nature for EMS.

“To my understanding this is the first time this code section has been used for the property tax portion of it,” Lester said. “This is the first time that county in the state that I’m aware of has used this code section for a property tax levy. It shows a big commitment to our EMS services that this is a priority and we will move forward and do our best improve the overall EMS system.”

Helgevold added, “This has never been done before in the state. I think one other county did this on an income tax levy, but no other county has declared an essential service, brought it to the voters, and done it this way. I think there will be other counties down the road who will look at this as a way to prop up their EMS because we aren’t the only ones in this situation. It’s all over rural Iowa.”