CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council has approved a revised ambulance service agreement that should result in better service for residents in the western part of the county.

A 28E agreement between Clear Lake and Mason City regarding ambulance service coverage to various parts of the unincorporated area of Cerro Gordo County expired in June of 2017. The new 28E agreement shifts about 95 square miles of territory from Mason City to Clear Lake.

Clear Lake Fire Chief Doug Meyers says one of the first discussions he had when Erik Bullinger became Mason City’s fire chief last year was on restructuring the service area for both departments to provide faster service.  “The service area in question incorporates ours, of Clear Lake’s and Ventura’s rural fire district, everything west of Killdeer Avenue within those two districts. Looking back at the closest ambulance to where people may need it, Mason City can get to that area east of Killdeer faster than we can, so it was a it was a good trade-off.”

Meyers says the increased service area likely won’t mean a significantly higher call volume to the Clear Lake department.   “What we would anticipate is an additional 10 calls per year in this increased service area. Most of the area is incredibly rural, there’s very few households. The exception would be the Ventura Heights area just south of the grade in Ventura. Currently our fire department, our volunteers respond for technical rescue incidents on the interstate. The only difference would be now that we would have our ambulance accompany with that heavy rescue truck on an extrication on the interstate.”

The Clear Lake council approved the agreement at their meeting on Monday night. Mason City’s city council approved it last week, and the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors gave their approval to the agreement at their meeting this morning.