Healthcare

Mitchell area ambulance election highlights value of emergency services

SDPB | By Jackie Hendry

Published July 22, 2025 at 6:55 AM CDT

First responders answer a call for ambulance service in Mitchell, S.D., on July 9, 2025.

South Dakota state law does not list ambulances as an essential service. That means counties aren't required to fund them.

When the Mitchell Fire and EMS department considered ending services for people outside city limits, first responders had to rally support for a new tax to keep the service running.

Calls to rural communities surrounding Mitchell spread the city's ambulance service too thin in recent years.

Dan Pollreisz is the Chief of Fire and EMS for the City of Mitchell. He said the rise in out-of-town calls meant sometimes there were no ambulances available to respond within city limits.

"We either have to hire more people to continue to service 750 square miles and an 8,000 population outside the city limits that's receiving these services, or we're going to have to stop doing it and focus on the city because it's a city service," he explained.

Mitchell Fire Chief Dan Pollreisz said the increasing call volume outside of city limits led the ambulance service to seek additional funds to increase staffing during an interview in Mitchell, S.D., on July 9, 2025.

Ending services didn't sit well with him, partly because his family lives in one of the communities that would have lost ambulance service. The same is true of Amy Storm, who works part time with Mitchell EMS.

"The services around us are already maxed out to their limits," she said. "They're not able to come and help us."

So, Chief Pollreisz turned to another part of state law on establishing an ambulance district. First, he and Amy Storm had to convince the Davison County and Hanson County commissioners. Then, the matter went to a special election across the two counties in April.

"And in the end, when we did the count and came up with 95% yes, it just blew us out of the water," Pollreisz said. "I think we were all a bit emotional at that point."

A special assessment tax will allow Mitchell to hire another six EMTs and continue serving the surrounding area. But strained emergency services are an issue around the state.

Mitchell EMT Amy Storm (left) explained to SDPB's Jackie Hendry (right) the community effort to continue providing ambulance service to surrounding communities during an interview on July 9, 2025 in Mitchell, S.D.

Amy Storm is glad to see the problem getting broader attention from a legislative summer study.

"I, first of all, commend them for putting the time in to actually say, 'Yeah, we need to look at this,'" she said. "Because that was probably one of the most eye-opening things out of the whole process was that this is not an essential service. How in the world can fire and police be essential, but ambulance is not an essential service?"

The Emergency Medical Services legislative study committee meets again Wednesday, July 23 in Pierre.