As city and county officials continue to hash out an agreement on ambulance services, another financial discussion is heating up behind the scenes: the county’s annual request for 911 funding from the City of Flandreau.
Moody County is once again asking the city — this year, for $63,313 to help cover the cost of staffing the county’s 911 service. It’s a piece of a larger $234,734.34 budget for emergency dispatch services in the county, with contributions also coming from the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe.
The Tribe is expected to contribute $21,273.58, based on call volume originating from its jurisdiction.
County officials determine the funding breakdown by looking at salary expenses from the previous year, subtracting revenue from the state’s 911 surcharge, and then reducing the remaining total by 30%.
That 30% reduction has been in place for years, though no one seems to remember exactly why it was set at that number. It’s just an amount county officials state they have chosen to contribute above and beyond what might otherwise be necessary.
This year, after those calculations, the remaining funding needed is $161,314, which is divided between the city and the tribe based on call volume percentages (38.53% and 12.95%, respectively).

No one other than FSST and the City of Flandreau are charged for dispatch as it is specific only to law enforcement dispatch — because no other local county entity has its own law enforcement, they do not have dispatch contracts.
Despite the request being consistent with past agreements, tensions appear to be lingering over how these costs are shared.
Commissioner Randy Hemmer stated that running a 911 service independently would cost the city far more than the requested $63,000.
“It’s not even that they couldn’t run it at that ($63,313),” said Commission Assistant Marty Skroch.
“The point here is, if they were running it, there’s no way in hell they’d give us this offer. This is a great offer that we give them for dispatch services and historically they’ve acted like we’re screwing them.”
For now, it appears the city is leaning toward approving the payment. According to an email from City Administrator Cohl Turnquist, he understands the agreement and expects the council to approve it without further conflict.
One concern looming, however, is the expected decrease in state 911 surcharge revenue. The state legislature recently rolled back reimbursement rates, meaning the county could see its revenue fall from $76,000 to around $60,000.
That shortfall will likely lead to more funding discussions in the years ahead.
“Working together makes it affordable for everyone,” he said.
“Us proposing we change it does need to come eventually.”