Currently, ambulance services in Denton township receive 1.5 mills ($0.50 per $1,000 of taxable income value). Dupon says that the proposal to increase the millage by .5- bringing it to an even 2 mills toward ambulance services- adds $15 to $20 a year per household.
“Thats not a bad investment,” Dupon said. “With lower income people, we see more calls for service just due to the lack of transportation that they have.”
According to Denton Township EMS Chief Richard Dupon, their average transport time for an ambulance call is about 30 minutes or 60 miles round trip. With about 2,000 calls a year, he says the township puts 80 to 100,000 miles on an ambulance per year.
Chief Dupon says the station replaces an ambulance every other year because of the excess wear and tear that northern Michigan’s rural landscape provides.
Dupon says the area has a large elderly population that can’t drive for medical reasons and use ambulance services to get to doctors’ appointments or hospitals.
“Nationally [its] the same, ambulance services are closing- they're going out of business,” said Dupon. “A lot of services can't support themselves anymore.”
The rising costs of fuel and maintenance to ambulances has made the township's budget tighter and tighter over the past four years and now. Dupon says he applies for grants to help with the costs, but since the programs are competitive and not guaranteed, they must find a more stable solution to their funding problem.
According to Dupon, the cost of medical supplies has not gone down since the COVID-19 pandemic, which only adds to the financial struggles of the department. “During COVID a box of gloves went from $6 to 20,” said Dupon. “We haven't seen those prices come down a lot, we’re still at 10-12 dollars a box at least.”
According to Dupon, people become paramedics and work the 2-day-a-week schedule while going to nursing school. Due to being used as a steppingstone in people’s medical school journey, the township has suffered from staffing issues like the rest of the state.
Dupon also said medics have been leaving the profession because they can't survive off the $21 an hour pay.
Chief Dupon says the additional millage funding would go directly toward filling the gap between the EMS budget and their current millage funds.
