Flandreau City will take over ambulance service, Jan. 1, 2026
The long wait is over for residents to be assured that ambulance service will remain local after the Flandreau City Council voted to take over the operations from Moody County beginning January 1, 2026.
Posted
Dana Hess, For the Moody County Enterprise
By Dana Hess
For the Moody County Enterprise
The city of Flandreau is getting into the ambulance business.
At its meeting Monday, June 2, the Flandreau City Council voted to take over the ambulance service that is currently operated by Moody County.
“This has been an ongoing discussion for many years,” said Mayor Dan Sutton.
Noting the past important decisions that the council has made, Sutton went on to say, “None is more meaningful than the one that’s going to be made tonight.”
Sutton explained that if the city decided to take on the ambulance service, it would have seven months to put together partnerships and contracts to make its operation of the ambulance service ready for the 2026 budget.
“I think this is something that the city is capable of managing,” said council member Tim Yeaton, on his way to making the motion for the city to take over the service. His motion was seconded by Mark Ekern.
Speaking against the motion was council member Brad Bjerke.
“I think it’s time we fund an ambulance service the same way we do a police department or a fire department,” Bjerke said.
Bjerke said he didn’t see how the city could absorb the estimated $100,000 per year deficit that’s been forecast if the city takes over the ambulance service.
Bjerke said he would prefer the development of an ambulance district with an assessment for property owners. He said he talked to a state government attorney in Pierre about the possibility of assessing only residences and not agricultural land. The attorney said to do that Bjerke would have to get the law changed through legislative action.
Bjerke said it was a matter of equity, with everyone paying for the service.
“We need to work together harder than we have before,” Bjerke said, predicting that in two years the city would be in the same boat as the county, complaining that it doesn’t have enough money to run the ambulance service.
The council approved the plan to take over the ambulance service on a 4-2 vote with Bjerke and Karen Tufty dissenting.
City administrator Cohl Turnquist said he would draft a letter about the city’s intentions for the Moody County Commission in time for the commission to have it for their meeting the next day, June 3.
“It’s going to take a lot of preparation on our end,” Turnquist said of the next seven months.