For the last 60 years Forks, Community Hospital has provided high quality and indispensable Emergency Medical Services. Each year EMS will travel a catchment area of over 900 miles to respond to 850+ calls for service. Weather, time of day, and holidays do not delay the 24 hours a day, seven days a week emergency care provided by our highly qualified local team. Forks EMS is unique in its need to respond to a variety of accidents or injuries.
Our team is prepared to drive logging roads, navigate off-road to obscure trailheads, and quickly transfer patients when the weather does not allow for airlift. Full-time EMS is invaluable when there is a fall, stroke, or heart attack. In many emergencies, time is essential; having EMS available can mean the difference between life and death.
In 2015 the community chose to partner with the hospital to help fund the purchase of instrumental capital equipment. The hospital honored its end of the partnership, ensuring 100% of the levy funds were used on EMS. Through this partnership with our community, the EMS levy funds a first responder ambulance system that hires and educates EMS staff provides dollars needed for emergency medical equipment, supplies, and the vehicles essential to provide dedicated emergency response to our community.
Unfortunately, this levy has been insufficient in covering the operating costs of the fully staffed 24/7 service, and the Hospital District has subsidized these costs at a significant loss to the District.
We ask the community to partner with EMS once more and approve a levy that will increase from 24 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to 32 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation for a continued six years. This new EMS levy level is intended to fully fund emergency medical service operations and ongoing capital equipment needs for the next six years. The revenue from this levy will be used by the Hospital District exclusively for emergency medical services.
If the levy is approved, the EMS levy on a $300,000 assessed valuation residence will not exceed $96.00 per year. If your property value increases, the levy amount will remain at the value during the levy’s initial year – you will not see an additional rise during the 2022-2027 levy.The District is grateful for the support of our community in past EMS Levies. To maintain our ambulance service for the next six years, we ask for your continued partnership through a YES vote on the next EMS Levy.
Ray Ellis Memorial Volunteers Ambulance Corps
