STURGIS, S.D. – The Sturgis City Council, in reaction to the recent election establishing a rural ambulance district, voted Monday night to extend ambulance service to the rural areas until January 20 of 2021.
The extension will give those in the rural areas currently served by the Sturgis Ambulance Service some time to set up a board and decide how they would like to move forward.
The rural residents can set up their own ambulance district or they can have the Sturgis Ambulance Service continue with their service.
Last month’s election was held after the city had said it would end the city-owned service to the rural areas unless they can find a way to help pay for it.
Residents of Sturgis help pay for the ambulance as it is added to their property taxes.
Sturgis City Manager Daniel Ainslie says the area of the Buffalo Chip will be excluded from the extension because they are not part of the new ambulance tax district.
Ross Lamphere, who has been spearheading the effort into establishing the rural ambulance tax district says they are still hoping to have an election for the board of directors in May, but the COVID-19 situation may change that.
He also presented a check last night to the Sturgis Ambulance Service from donations that had continued to come in. The check was for $6,146.66.
In other ambulance news, Ainslie says he has also heard that the Enning Ambulance Service is shutting down.
“We have not been officially notified, but the Enning Ambulance Service has stated that as of the end of this month, they are not going to be providing ambulance service anymore. And, their response was that their existing response area was going to be divided between Rapid City, Sturgis and Faith.”
However, Ainslie says Rapid City has stated that they are not able to provide service in that area and he says it also goes beyond what the Sturgis Ambulance Service could provide.
He says there is a scheduled conference call with the state to talk about the situation later this week and he would update the council after that meeting.
