Lac du Flambeau town board approves 2024 EMS contract with Oneida County

Facing a Jan. 1 deadline, the Lac du Flambeau town board last week approved “under protest” a 2024 emergency medical service (EMS) contract with Oneida County. 

For 2023, the town paid Oneida County $178,242, which was a reduced figure from what was originally $240,000. 

For 2024, the amount is $291,514, according to the resolution. 

“We are still using Oneida County EMS as our backup,” town chairman Matt Gaulke said, a reference to Med 5, which is based at Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff and dispatched to Lac du Flambeau if, for some reason, the town’s volunteer EMS service can’t respond to a call. 

“I understand that,” town supervisor Bob Hanson said. 

Hanson has been vocal at different meetings, both at the town board level and in his capacity as a member of the Vilas County board, in his opposition to the dollar amount. 

“I still haven’t got an answer to why Lac du Flambeau is being treated differently than any other town that has its own ambulance,” he said. “We’re paying a $291,000 base fee, according to that (contract) and other towns with their own ambulance have no base fee. Their fees are a la carte. It would come out to, I believe, considerably less. I don’t know why we’re the only town with its own ambulance that’s being treated this way. This is discriminatory treatment and I don’t understand it. I can’t explain it.”

Town supervisor Gloria Cobb agreed with Hanson.

“We went through this over a year ago and pretty much, we were told Vilas (County dispatch) had a sticker on us, telling Med 5 not to run to Flambeau unless it was life or death,” she said. “Now, you tell me that a dispatcher can determine life or death. Now, this amount here is far greater than the 15 percent ...the original 15 percent that it would increase from the first year it went up. I mean, we don’t have a choice.”

“I think we have to pay it to maintain the service but I want to make it clear that I am voting for that payment under protest,” Hanson said. “I think that there is ... there’s some other motivation going on here, whether it’s the fact that we have a majority Native American population in this town that none of the others have or what other factors may be involved here, I don’t know. I have not gotten an adequate answer from Oneida County on this.”

He reiterated his belief Oneida County was treating the town of Lac du Flambeau differently. 

“They’re treating us badly and there’s no reason given,” Hanson said.

Cobb made the motion to approve the contract “under protest” and it passed unanimously. 

After the meeting, Gaulke, who was silent during the brief discussion prior to the vote, told The Lakeland Times signing the EMS contract with Oneida County for 2024 was something the town of Lac du Flambeau needed to do “so we can provide ambulance service as required according to state statute.”

Over the course of the past couple of years, as the town board worked toward building a new fire/ambulance station built, Gaulke has expressed his goal to have a full-time ambulance service in the town of Lac du Flambeau. 

He was asked by the Times if he still feels that way. 

“Absolutely,” Gaulke said. “I’d like to see us have our own ambulance crew and we would not need Med 5 anymore except for when our crews are out or I’d like to see sometime that we become a backup for Med 5.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].