SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Can you or your family members wait 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive? That’s the question posed by the Carthage Ambulance Service in a letter sent to the community this December.
Carthage is a small community of around 130 tucked away in the northwest corner of Miner County.
The letter, signed by city officials including the mayor and city finance officer, states that the service is badly in need of new EMTs.
“The ambulance service is willing to pay a $2000.00 plus sign-on bonus for each person that commits to taking an EMT class,” reads the letter.
Outside of the Carthage Ambulance Service, the nearest emergency service would be Miner County, based out of Howard; a 20 mile drive from Carthage.
KELOLAND News spoke with Carthage Ambulance director Kris Magerko, who said that while the service is made up of volunteers, the city has worked with them to put them in a position where they can offer to pay a sign-on bonus and fund training of new EMTs.
At this point, Magerko says they are looking for about as many people who would be willing to sign up, noting that all the current EMTs are hitting retirement age and beyond.
“We need the younger generations to step up,” he said. “If you don’t have people step up to provide those services, they won’t be there.”
EMTs with the ambulance service are pretty much on-call at all times, due to numbers, says Magerko, but he adds that there aren’t that many calls considering the fairly small area they cover. “If you get called out 12 times a year, that’s a lot,” he commented.
Magerko estimated the service area as being about a 10-mile radius around the town of Carthage.
Between the small service area and the limited number of calls, Magerko says one of the more important qualifiers for a volunteer would be living within that area.
Magerko said that training, paid for by the Ambulance Service, would take place in Carthage, meaning volunteers would not have to travel far to complete the course. He estimated that the course could take 1-2 months, with 1-2 four-hour classes a week.
So far, Magerko has not heard of any direct inquiries and notes that this is the second letter the Ambulance Service has sent out.
If you are interested in signing up to serve on the Carthage Ambulance Service, Magerko provided [email protected] as the address to email.
