Mid-County EMS has three-mill levy on the ballot

The Mid-County Joint Ambulance service in Oak Harbor has a three-mill levy on the ballot.

It is an additional tax in order to provide ambulance service, emergency medical service, or both that the county auditor estimates will collect $534,342 annually at a cost of $105 annually for each $100,000 of the county auditor's appraised value.

“The number of calls Mid-County EMS (MCEMS) has had over the past several years has been on the rise,” chief Kenan Mylander said. “When I started with MCEMS in 1992, we had 300 calls. In 2000, there were 541 calls, and in 2010, there were 705 calls. In 2018, MCEMS had 1,018 calls, and it has remained at or above 950 calls per year since. As of Sept. 30, 2025, MCEMS has had 792 calls.”

That all coincides with a decrease in the number of volunteer EMTs available. Before 2016, MCEMS used a “paid volunteer” model where EMTs came from home whenever they were available, and an ambulance would respond in around four to five minutes.

In 2016, MCEMS shifted to a scheduled “hourly paid” system, where EMTs are on duty at the station for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the ambulance responds in around 90 seconds.

“It has been that way ever since, thanks to the community's support through levy funding,” Mylander said.

MCEMS maximizes billing for services as allowed.

“The residents of our district (Salem Township and the villages of Oak Harbor and Rocky Ridge) do not get billed out of pocket because their support is covered through levies,” Mylander said. “Non-residents, however, do have their insurance companies billed and receive bills sent to their homes as well. But because of insurance companies negotiating prices and payments, only a portion of the bills are recovered, and represents a small portion of the overall budget.”