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A voter studies the ballot Tuesday at the Mercer County Fairgrounds.
CELINA - Voters on Election Day overwhelmingly passed an additional five-year, 1-mill property tax levy for the newly established Mercer County Joint Ambulance District.
Unofficial final results show 71.11% or 11,581 votes were cast in support of the levy and 28.89% or 4,706 votes against it.
The levy appeared on ballots in Celina, Coldwater, Mendon, Montezuma and Rockford precincts as well as East Jefferson North and South, West Jefferson, Center, Butler East, Butler West, Dublin, Mendon Union, Franklin East, Franklin West, Hopewell, Liberty, Washington and Blackcreek precincts.
"The community has definitely stepped up and showed their support," said Mercer County Emergency Medical Services Director Kara Smith. "It's great to see that they really see the need for EMS and came out to support us."
"We are ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic," added Coldwater EMS branch treasurer Monte Diegel. "We want to thank the voters of Mercer County, obviously, especially the Mercer County new ambulance district. We're going to be good stewards of the money."
The levy will generate $1.18 million annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $35 per year. It will commence in 2024 and be first due in calendar year 2025, according to the ballot language.
The additional tax will be collected for the purpose of ambulance and emergency medical services.
Specifically, it will provide for on-call pay for six volunteers - three at the Coldwater EMS branch and three at the Rockford EMS branch. Volunteers would earn $5 for every hour they're on call.
"The plan behind that is to encourage the volunteers that we do have to pick up the on-call (shifts)," Smith had said. "It also entices more people from the community to join the EMS."
Furthermore, the levy will fund four full-time paramedics to provide support for volunteers on squad runs. The paramedics will be dispatched to meet ambulances anywhere in the district via "chase vehicles" and provide "the highest level of prehospital care," Smith said.
The additional paramedics will staff night and weekend shifts, she added.
The full-time Celina Fire Department that doubles as the Celina EMS branch will benefit, too, according to Smith.
"It will allow for additional staffing for Celina Fire," Smith had said. "Their current staffing should be five guys per shift. That number ultimately should be seven or eight per shift as busy as they are. They are working at staffing levels from the 1970s."
Officials spent many years discussing ways to ease the burden of the undermanned, chronically-strained county EMS system that covers 345 square miles.
They opted to form a join ambulance district and place a property tax levy in the precincts it serves to hire more full-time help and switch to to a paid-on-call system for volunteers.
"The new board meets again next week to start that process already," Diegel said.
It's somewhat similar to that of the former St. Henry EMS branch which broke away a few years ago to form the Southern Mercer County Joint Ambulance District.
The county EMS system has branches manned by volunteers in Rockford and Coldwater. Celina, which is also part of the system, has paid firefighters/EMS personnel in addition to 12 auxiliary members at this time, according to Smith.
