Mayville Mulls Passing Emergency Services Cost Increases On To Neighboring Municipalities

(Mayville) The townships and villages that utilize Mayville’s ambulance services could be paying more next year. City officials Monday night approved a proposal to increase the town’s and village’s mill rate in order to cover emergency care costs. The plan would see citizens of Hubbard, LeRoy, Lomira, Williamstown, Iron Ridge and Kekoskee pay nine-cents per one-thousand dollars of assessed value for EMS services. Mayville residents pay 27-cents. Mayor Rob Boelk says rising costs for the city to maintain their EMS department is the reason behind this initiative. Boelk cites the addition of a full-time EMS employee and higher rates for part-time staff. He also notes that an increase has not been implemented by the city since 2013. Under the current contract the townships and villages are paying roughly $16-thousand dollars a year combined. The original proposal suggested that number would have increased to $92-thousand but the council last night agreed to cut that down to one-third of that to roughly $30-thousand dollars. The total EMS expenses for Mayville run just over $286-thousand dollars. Boelk says a lot of work went into figuring out the best formula to use in order to determine a fair mill rate to charge the townships and believes using assessed value achieves that goal. Mayville’s common council will need to approve the proposal at their next meeting. Boelk says a contract will then be written up for the townships to review and decide if they wish to approve it. He says if they vote against the proposal the towns and villages will need to look elsewhere for emergency services.