Arbor Vitae town board settles on Oneida County ambulance contract

The Arbor Vitae town board has agreed to sign a contract with Oneida County to provide residents with ambulance service in 2024.

The board voted to sign the contract, for a total of $227, 303, during its Sept. 20 meeting.

The 2024 contract includes more than a $100,000 increase from the year before.

Under state statute 60.565, it is a town’s responsibility to offer its residents ambulance service.

According to the contract, Arbor Vitae will pay Oneida County “its share of the actual costs of the ambulance service program, and the County will permit the Town to participate in the ambulance service program organized, equipped, operated and maintained by the County through separate contractual agreements with the Aspirus, Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff, Wisconsin, and Aspirus Rhinelander Hospitals, Inc. in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, on the terms, covenants and conditions hereinafter set forth.”

Town chairman Frank Bauers expressed hope that Vilas County will be able to provide towns like Arbor Vitae a solution by forming a county-wide ambulance service.

Leah Trojan, the Vilas County supervisor who represents Arbor Vitae, attended the town board meeting and said a committee among county board members will begin meeting in October regarding the county-wide ambulance idea.

Vilas County, she said, attempted to form a county-wide ambulance service in the past. Though that effort eventually dissolved though, she said the now situation seems more promising. 

“The reason why it didn’t go through before (is) we had multiple townships not wanting to get onboard, but now it seems like everybody is needing this to happen,” she said, adding that the four northwest Vilas County towns working to form their own shared ambulance service indicated they would join in on a county-wide effort. 

To have a county-wide ambulance service, the county’s tax levy would need to be increased. Trojan said county board chairman Jerry Burkett would like to have a referendum in order to do so.

“I don’t know the timeline, (the committee has) to meet first,” she said. “But that’s what Burkett said was even though they can levy, they want to go referendum to get it approved.”

Town supervisor Pamela Carroll pointed out how there’s federal and state funding opportunities to help the town provide an ambulance service.

“Which I think we did get some of that for this contract as well, did we not?” she asked Bauers.

He said the town will get an increase in its portion of shared revenues distributed by the state, alluding to the sweeping bill approved as part of the state’s biennial budget earlier this year.

“That’s what the governor said it was specifically for,” he said. “This amount on this contract we’re gonna sign is $227,000, but that won’t be payable next year, it will be payable the year after that. This year we thought we were gonna have to pay the $115,000, (that’s) what we negotiated down to (last year). But they’re also a year behind the billing, so we only had to pay $85,000. So next year we’ll pay the $115,000.”

If the county-wide ambulance service for Vilas County doesn’t materialize in time, and the town will need to continue using Oneida County’s ambulance service by the time it needs to enter into another contract with Oneida County, Bauers said the town will need to go to referendum itself to raise its tax levy to off-set the ambulance cost.

“Everybody’s in the same boat we’re in,” he said. “ ... So, who would like to make a motion that we enter into this agreement?”

“Begrudgedly so,” Carroll said. “I mean this is such an increase, but I’ll go ahead and make that motion.”

Bauers seconded Carroll’s motion , noting that the town doesn’t “really have much of a choice.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].