By Dave Baumeister
County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – County commissioners looked to the future at their Tuesday, March 4, meeting, when they heard from fire and ambulance services and voted to take requests for proposals on developing the downtown Minnehaha County buildings.
In separate briefings, Dr. Jeff Luther, the Quality Assurance Director for the county ambulance services, presented the fourth quarter 2024 numbers for Garretson, Dell Rapids and Humboldt volunteer services, while county fire chiefs discussed those, plus additional figures for fire departments and other emergency calls in the county.
The common theme among all the reports was that the emergency call volume was up and has so far continued to increase in 2025.
According to Luther’s fourth quarter 2024 figures, the Dell Rapids ambulance service received 572 calls, Humboldt had 289, and Garretson was close behind with 283 calls.
Ambulance calls are also taken by Medstar (961) and PC-EMS (225).
The first three listed are all volunteer services, while the last two are paid services that also service rural Minnehaha County.
Mike Harstad, president of the Minnehaha Fire Chiefs Association, explained that the three volunteer ambulance services mentioned by Luther, were also a part of the overall emergency services of the fire departments in each of those towns.
In addition to Dell Rapids, Humboldt and Garretson, Harstad and Sgt. Marisa Munkvold of Minnehaha County Emergency Management also gave numbers that included the other fire departments in the county: Baltic, Brandon, Colton, Crooks, Hartford, Lyons, Renner, Split Rock and Valley Springs.
These departments, plus Minnehaha County Search and Rescue, recorded 7,775 volunteer hours of service.
Harstad said there were more than 6,500 calls and compared that number to the 16,000 calls for the city of Sioux Falls.
Although most of Sioux Falls is located in Minnehaha County, the numbers for that city are not reflected in the general county numbers.
But county calls outside of Sioux Falls represent a much higher per capita call rate than those inside Sioux Falls.
One reason for the increased number of calls they are seeing, Harstad said, is that the towns in northern and western Minnehaha County are transitioning to more “bedroom communities” for people working in Sioux Falls.
And the fact was brought up by the fire chiefs present, as well as commissioners, that belonging to these departments is a huge way to support and help out the various communities.
All of the services are always looking for new volunteers, and information on how to join can be found at http://minnehahacountyfire.org/WhyJoin.aspx.
Planning for 2032
A call for bids to plan for development of the “downtown (Sioux Falls) campus” of Minnehaha County buildings was unanimously voted for by commissioners as a part of a project to improve these facilities over the next seven years.
The county is looking for proposals that will be geared toward assessing and planning for necessary improvements to some or all of the nine Sioux Falls buildings that are part of “Minnehaha Downtown Campus.”
While all of the buildings have had some improvements made over time, some of them date back to the 19th Century.
Even the lynchpin to the county’s downtown campus, the Minnehaha County Administration Building, is 65 years old.
Other main downtown county buildings include the courthouse, the Coliseum, Public Safety, Extension, and Health and Human Services buildings.
The deadline on this newest “Call for Proposals” is at noon on Monday, April 14, and can be found at https://minnehahacounty.gov/notices/biddersProposals/biddersProposals.php. A copy of that proposal can also be picked up from the Commission Office at 415 N. Dakota Avenue, Sioux Falls.
The next meeting of the county commission will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 18, in the third-floor meeting room of the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
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