County Commission | The Magazine November 2019 | Page 21

FROM THE COVER
Dale County Honored for
Improving EMS
T
he Dale County Commission
took home the 2019 Excellence
in County Government Award
for creating a grant program —
funded by a new $5 tag fee — to
support emergency medical services
throughout the county.
“The people of Dale County
were in tremendous support of
a new fee,” said ACCA Awards
Committee Chair Jay Thompson
during the ACCA Annual
Convention. “The tag fee went
into effect in the spring of this
year, and in May, it had already
provided more than $55,000 to
Dale County EMS.”
The commission-administered
grant program addresses a common
problem for rural areas: long
response times for ambulances
and medical first responders,
especially in areas served by
volunteer organizations. Smaller
municipalities were unable to help
support EMS financially, and
volunteers were forced to spend a
disproportionate amount of time on
fundraising activities.
Commission Chairman Mark
Blankenship chose to take on this
problem for his Passion Project as
part of the ACCA PLAN 2018
leadership program, and he and
Excellence in
County Government
2019
presented to
Dale County
EMERGENCY MEDICAL
SERVICES FUNDING
the commission worked together
to develop a solution that would
help subsidize emergency medical
services provided by both paid
and volunteer organizations. Rep.
Steve Clouse introduced local
COUNTY COMMISSION | 21