Otter Tail County moves to secure Pelican Rapids ambulance service

Otter Tail County commissioners moved to build a subordinate service district to keep Pelican Rapids ambulance coverage in place after Ringdahl Ambulance warned that financial pressure could force a change in service when its primary service area license expires in 2027.

Ringdahl told cities and townships in March that it was facing serious shortfalls, then formally notified the Minnesota Office of Emergency Medical Services in June that it does not plan to renew its Pelican Rapids primary service area license. In Pelican Rapids, that service includes advanced life support coverage for western Otter Tail County, with one or two ALS crews staffed at the station and shared personnel between Pelican Rapids and Fergus Falls. Ringdahl said it has served Fergus Falls since 1967.

Commissioner Wayne Johnson led outreach to the affected townships and cities, and those conversations pointed toward the subordinate service district option. Under that structure, the county could seek its own primary service area license, put ambulance service out for bids through a request for proposals, and pay for the operation through property taxes or parcel fees. Johnson said emergency medical services are not optional, and that help has to come when people call 911.

County officials also met with Ringdahl representatives to work through the transition. The Minnesota Office of Emergency Medical Services designates ambulance primary service areas under state law, and the state’s boundary maps and EMS datasets show those service territories are formal licensing areas, not informal coverage zones.

Pelican Rapids city council minutes from May 26 showed local officials discussing county involvement, joint powers or a fee-based subordinate service district estimated at under $100 per household to keep rural EMS viable. Those minutes also showed the city had been dealing with Ringdahl subsidy requests for 2025 and 2026, while earlier minutes from March 26, 2024 recorded a revised city subsidy request of $20,694 and Ringdahl’s warning that its ambulance finances were not good. Only some Pelican-area townships have been subsidizing service, leaving much of west Otter Tail County outside the cost base. Otter Tail County’s calendar listed a June 30 work session on Pelican Rapids EMS.