Village of Colfax decides to put $106,000 grant toward a new ambulance
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Village Board has approved putting the nearly $106,000 EMS Flex grant from the state of Wisconsin toward the purchase of a new ambulance.
In addition to the $105,915 grant, the Colfax Rescue Squad has $45,000 in the 2022 equipment budget and a $50,000 fund balance from last year, said Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, during a special meeting of the Colfax Village Board October 3.
Money for the EMS Flex grants came from federal money that Wisconsin received.
Don Knutson, director of the Colfax Rescue Squad, had initially applied for $238,000 in grant money.
Wisconsin officials decided to fund each of the requests at 40 percent so that all of the ambulance services that applied would receive some money.
The grant will come in two payments, and Colfax must spend the first part of the grant in order to get the second part, Knutson said.
With the first half of the grant, the Rescue Squad can put money toward the chassis so that the order is in and set, he said.
Knutson has received information from other agencies that have ordered a new ambulance recently, and the price has been between $310,000 and $315,000.
The ambulance would most likely be delivered in 2024, Niggemann said.
The manufacturers are saying 12 to 24 months from the date of ordering the ambulance, Knutson said.
Colfax has also received another state EMS grant for $24,390, and that money could be used for the cot that will go into the new ambulance, Knutson said.
What would be done with the old ambulance? asked Rand Bates, director of public works.
If Colfax does not receive a high enough trade-in value, Knutson said he would recommend selling the ambulance.
Five years ago, Knutson said he was told the old ambulance was worth $5,000.
Now used ambulances are in demand, and Knutson said he has received telephone calls from two agencies asking if he had a used unit for sale.
What would be the final outlay from the village for the new ambulance? asked Gary Stene, village trustee.
Around $59,000 or $69,000, Niggemann said.
How would the money be financed? Stene asked.
The money could come from interim borrowing from the village’s general fund to the Rescue Squad, Niggemann said.
The Colfax Rescue Squad will reimburse the money to the village eventually, Knutson said.
Equipment
If the village board is not comfortable with the idea of buying a new ambulance, the grant could be used for equipment replacement, Niggemann said.
The grant would replace two monitors and two cots, which are both on the 10-year plan, Knutson said.
Every year at the Colfax Rescue Squad’s annual meeting in August with the municipalities served by the Rescue Squad, Knutson provides a 10-year plan for equipment replacement in his annual report.
The $315,000 for a new ambulance would include one new cot that would be paid for with the $24,000 grant, Knutson said.
On the 10-year plan, the monitors and cots would be replaced as the money becomes available, he said.
The original plan was to replace the ambulance two years ago in 2019, Knutson said.
The order for a new ambulance will not affect next year’s budget, he said.
The Colfax Village Board also recently approved a third-party billing company for the Colfax Rescue Squad.
The hope is that revenue will increase with the new billing company, Knutson said.
The new billing company also will be providing two laptop computers, and that will remove the laptop computers from the 10-year plan, he noted.
At the Rescue Squad meeting last Wednesday, the EMTs said they would rather have the self-loading cots than a new ambulance, Knutson said.
A self-loading cot would come with the new ambulance, and then the remaining ambulance, which would be used less, would be stationed in Elk Mound, he said.
Preference
What is your preference? Stene asked.
Knutson said he was happy to have received notice of the grant award because “it puts us in a better place.”
As for whether he would like the new equipment or a new ambulance, there is a two-year waiting time for a new ambulance, so if the Colfax Rescue Squad waits another two years to build up more money in the equipment fund before ordering an ambulance, then it will be four years before the village gets a new ambulance, Knutson said.
The ambulance that would be replaced has a 2011 chassis, and the box was new in 2005, so the chassis is 11 years old and the box is nearly 20 years old, he said.
Knutson said he also could apply for a Bremer Foundation grant for ambulance equipment.
The Bremer Foundation now has a cost-share for any grants, but there are other grants available, too, for equipment, he said.
“This is an opportunity we can hardly pass up,” Niggemann said.
“It’s a no-brainer. We could be forking out the full amount,” said Margaret Burcham, village trustee.
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved putting the $106,000 EMS Flex grant toward the purchase of a new ambulance.
In addition to Burcham and Stene, Jody Albricht, village president, and Village Trustees Carey Davis, Anne Jenson, Jeff Prince and Jen Rud voted in favor of the motion.
Knutson had an October 10 deadline to specify to the state of Wisconsin what he intends to do with the grant money.
If the money is not used for its stated purpose, then the money must be returned to the state.
