Newell names interim ambulance director amid staffing, revenue concerns

Newell turned to Sarah Thompson-Fix to stabilize its ambulance service after Laura Degner resigned, a move aimed at keeping emergency coverage in place while the city confronts staffing and revenue problems inside a volunteer department.

The Newell City Council appointed Thompson-Fix as interim ambulance director on the recommendation of Mayor Justin Lyman, who had pushed for a six-to-12 month appointment. The city’s next step is not just filling a vacancy. It is trying to rebuild oversight in a service that handles the first minutes of a medical crisis in a small rural community where response time can determine whether help arrives in time.

The leadership change followed reports that less than a third of Newell’s ambulance calls were being reported, leaving the city short at least $66,000 in ambulance revenue. Council minutes from March 3, 2026 showed that only about 32% of 2025 ambulance calls produced completed transport reports, a gap that points to problems in recordkeeping as much as staffing. Degner’s immediate resignation was announced by Mayor Justin Lyman in early April 2026, and the city’s April 6 meeting minutes show officials were already working through the fallout.

Thompson-Fix said her main reason for taking the interim post was to ensure the city maintained an ambulance service. That goal carries added weight in Newell, where the City of Newell lists its Fire Department/Ambulance as a volunteer department and where service depends on a small pool of local workers and clear administration. In a county the size of Buena Vista, which had 20,823 residents in the 2020 Census, a lapse in ambulance coverage can ripple quickly through neighboring homes, farms and businesses.

The issue also mirrors a wider Iowa challenge. Iowa HHS is the state’s lead agency for emergency medical services regulation, and state standards call for rural ambulance response times to stay within 20 minutes. Rural staffing shortages and losses of volunteers have already strained service reliability across the state, making Newell’s personnel change more than a routine hire. It was a corrective move meant to keep the ambulance running, restore basic financial controls and protect local response capability while the city decides what comes next.