After years in the planning on options to match the levels of needed Emergency Medical services with the rising and aging population of Washington County, the Hartford City Council unanimously approved a resolution giving support of the mayor, administrator and fire chief to negotiate final details on a county-wide EMS financing program.

This agreement required the efforts of representatives of every community along with fire departments to pull together something that could help everyone.

For the past two plus years, top elected officials have been meeting with fire chiefs to try to answer the question of how to address the growing needs of EMS service while facing lower numbers of volunteers and restrictive state levy limits which prohibit increasing needed funding.

They hope with the proper county approval, this new plan will be in place by the start of 2027.