The Millstadt Ambulance Service offered an update earlier this month regarding its bid for establishing an independent ambulance district, as it seems such a funding opportunity isn’t likely at this point.

A post from the Millstadt Ambulance Service Facebook page shared at the start of the month congratulated Sugar Creek for its organization of an ambulance district before explaining that state legislation precludes Millstadt from setting up its own.

As the post explains, the department has heard from its attorney that, because a fire protection district already exists within the community, Millstadt will be unable to set up a separate EMS district as situations such as this weren’t fully addressed when the law was first drafted.

As the legislation would need to be amended for the district to be established, the plan is at a standstill for the time being.

“We remain committed to exploring every possible option to keep Millstadt EMS moving forward,” the post said. “Rising costs and increasing competition from larger agencies with benefits and better pay continue to challenge small, community-based EMS providers like ours—but we’ve been proudly serving Millstadt since 1980, and we’re not giving up.”

Millstadt EMS previously announced plans to pursue an independent ambulance district late last year, with EMS Chief Jennifer Goetz speaking with the Republic-Times in January about the need for such a source of funding.

Goetz discussed the department’s coverage of a wide area for both service calls and mutual aid calls, noting how handling so much has proven especially difficult in recent years amid rising cost of equipment and issues with recruitment and retention.

Millstadt EMS currently receives funds from the Millstadt Fire Protection District and began looking into establishing its own taxing district in order to better handle such issues.

Goetz also spoke previously about the struggles of insurance payments taking a long time to reimburse the department, and they also often don’t adequately cover the cost of service considering how expensive equipment can be.

“As our community grows, we need more money to be able to give a good wage to our medics and EMTs and be able to buy equipment to serve the community,” Goetz said.