East Custer ambulance work continues

It appears the vast majority of the residents of eastern Custer County are in favor of creating an ambulance district on that side of the county. However, whether or not that is actually the case could be decided sooner rather than later.
At the Dec. 10 meeting of the Custer County Commission, the commission heard from Leo Van Sambeek, a long-time Hermosa resident and a part of Hermosa Connects, Inc., and Hermosa Area Growth and Development, who is helping working on moving a potential ambulance district forward. Van Sambeek told the commission in an October forum held in Hermosa regarding the issue appeared to show the community was overwhelmingly in support of such a district.
Van Sambeek said after the meeting out of 77 questionaires returned not a single one was against the creation of a district.
“That blew me away,” he said. “There’s always naysayers.”
Van Sambeek laid out a timeline for the creation of a district, which first would have to be approved by voters within the district boundaries—wherever it is they are eventually set.
The creation of an ambulance district—or expansion of the Custer Ambulance District to cover the area—have both been on the table since earlier this year when the county received a letter from the Rapid City Fire Department (RCFD) saying that due to rising call volume in Rapid City and Hermosa it no longer wanted to provide coverage for the Hermosa area—at least not at the price it was doing it for at the time.
Through a 2007 agreement RCFD has provided ambulance service to Hermosa and eastern Custer County for $2,000 per year, and at the time of the agreement it was a sustainable situation due to the low call volume and the benefit to Rapid City from Hermosa’s sales tax dollars. However, the call volume has increased over the years, RCFD’s costs went up, and $2,000 per year ceased to be sustainable. Earlier this year, the fee was increased to $60,000 per year for 2025 and 2026, and a long-term solution was sought. Last year, RCFD ambulances responded to 140 calls in eastern Custer County, at an estimated cost of $1,000 per incident.
Van Sambeek said RCFD seems amenable to providing service for another year at around the $60,000 rate. However, the county did not budget for that expense, and commissioner Craig Hindle said he believes the Town of Hermosa should be responsible for some of that expense. Further, ambulance service is not considered an essential service under state law, meaning the commission is under no obligation to provide ambulance service of any kind.
Van Sambeek laid out the timeline of moving ahead with setting the boundaries of the district, a resolution to move the process ahead and a tax request that would all ideally see the district voted on in June and the district, if approved, operational by Jan. 1, 2027.
Discussion was held on ways the district could be funded, including a mil levy or a special assessment against particular classes of property—or a combination of the two.
Van Sambeek said what was done in Mitchell is being studied, where the City of Mitchell stopped providing free ambulance service to rural areas around the city. Because of this, rural areas around Mitchell spanning two counties formed a district that raises $800,000 to help with that service’s budget. That was done via special assessment where any tax parcel that has an occupied building is assessed $245 per year.
If eastern Custer County went straight mil levy, taxes on agricultural property could raise as much as 15 percent, Van Sambeek said.
“I don’t think that would be too easy to sell,” he said. 
Ultimately, it would be up to the district’s initial board of directors to determine how the district taxes those within district boundaries.
Van Sambeek indicated the district would likely contract with another ambulance service—such as RCFD—at least initially, as he does not believe the funding would be there to form an ambulance service with its own ambulance, garage and employees. 
“People would argue with me, and they will say ‘but it only costs this much to run an ambulance service,’ but everyone I have talked to says those are lowball numbers and it costs a heck of a lot more,” he said.
State’s attorney Tracy Kelley said the county would have to pass a resolution acknowledging Custer County land would be included in the district within at least 60 days prior to the election, as would the Town of Hermosa if it is to be within the district boundaries. If some of the district boundary spills into Pennington County that could complicate the issue, as it would require a joint meeting with the Pennington County Commission as well as put up some other hoops to jump through.
Custer Ambulance Service director Mike Bielmaier, who was on hand for the discussion, said if the plan is for the district to contract it would be better off just paying the $60,000 to RCFD because service would not be increased, it would just cost more money.
“When this started I thought we were talking about a partnership to increase the service of the system,” he said. “Leo hasn’t included me in the conversations—and that’s his choice—but last time I talked to the Rapid City fire chief, Pennington County was not on the table. (Van Sambeek) had more meetings, he knows more about it than I do, so that could very well be.”
Bielmaier also said there are opportunities for capital outlay that “are not being appreciated here.”
“I don’t want us to lose sight of the goal—to improve service in that part of the county. Your responsibility is to Custer County. We certainly can’t improve the service to that part of the county if we continue to think of this as a system rather than just this isolated district,” he said. “If you contract with Hot Springs or Rapid City, the ambulance isn’t going to be any closer, you’re just paying them more money.”