DILLSBORO, Ind. — In 2021, the Dillsboro Emergency Ambulance Unit’s response rate to calls for emergency services was 30.82%. In 2022 it dropped to 20.79% and bottomed out at just 12% in 2023.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said those numbers endanger public safety and that it has "become apparent that DEAU is no longer able to fulfill its mission to the Town of Dillsboro and other communities in Dearborn County."
Rokita's office filed a complaint in Dearborn County Superior Court Friday calling for the dissolution of the nonprofit volunteer corporation and the appointment of a receiver to oversee the wind-down process.
This action comes nearly a year after Dearborn County terminated its contract with the group due to falling response rates and concerns over governance. DEAU has not provided emergency services to the Dillsboro or surrounding areas since then, the complaint reads.
Watch to hear more about Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's complaint against the EMS service:
WCPO first reported on the community's EMS struggles in August 2023. In the first six months of 2023, Dillsboro's ambulance unit didn't have a crew available for about 120 emergency runs — including reports of traumatic injuries and strokes, according to Dearborn County 911 records.
911 records showed the unit responded to about one out of five emergency calls in the town.
In a 2023 interview with the WCPO I-Team, DEAU co-captains Bev Tackett and Harry Witteride said that the unit lost half its members, including EMTssince the start of the pandemic. They'd also seen a dramatic cut in revenue and can't keep up with growing demand.
In a June 2024 interview, Dearborn County Commissioner Jim Thatcher said after the I-Team's initial stories, the Dillsboro unit responded to even fewer emergencies.
So, in May 2024, two months after the previous contract expired, the county offered the unit a new contract that promised continued funding if the unit met response benchmarks.
The DEAU board rejected the contract and countered with one of their own.
"They proposed a contract with no accountability and asked for more money, and at that point we were at an impasse," Thatcher said.
That impasse was the straw that broke the camel's back, Thatcher said. Town and county leaders joined to find a solution, ultimately penning a letter to AG Rokita asking him to step in.
Indiana law allows the Attorney General to seek dissolution of a domestic nonprofit corporation that has misapplied or wasted corporate assets and/or is no longer able to carry out the corporation’s purpose.
"DEAU has been regularly receiving approximately $60,000 per year in public funds to operate, holding fundraisers in the community purporting to raise money to provide emergency services, and taking in payments for ambulance services, while nonprofit assets continued to decrease according to DEAU’s federal 990 tax returns, response rates fell, and without any new contract with the County," the complaint reads. "From 2016 to 2021, DEAU reported assets decreasing from $1,363,126 to $142,350."
The DEAU building still stands and the ambulances remain behind glass-paned garage doors, but they haven't rolled out of the facility since the contract terminated last March. The County has been making supplemental distributions to Dillsboro Fire, Aurora EMS and Moores Hill EMS in exchange for their services to help provide coverage in communities where DEAU used to.
"(Dillsboro EMS) has refused to hand over their assets to the town so that we could restart the EMS service in Dillsboro," Thatcher said.
Rokita's office also filed a preliminary injunction on DEAU, asking the court to prevent the non-profit and any of its agents from removing, disposing, selling, or transferring any of the Defendant’s assets, and to allow an expedited inspection of the entire property.
"A preliminary injunction enjoining Defendant and its agents from removing or otherwise disposing of assets during the pendency of this lawsuit is necessary to account for and secure high-cost medical equipment and emergency vehicles so that they can be best used in furtherance of providing emergency services in and around Dillsboro," the motion reads. "Without a contract to provide emergency services in and around Dillsboro, and without a preliminary injunction halting such actions, Defendant may begin disposing of assets that could otherwise be used to benefit the citizens of Dillsboro and surrounding areas with emergency medical services."
"My hope is once the 501c is dissolved, then the assets need to be placed with the town or with another 501c, which could be Dillsboro Fire. So the assets could go to either one of those locations," Thatcher said. "We've had some conversations with folks out in Dillsboro and they believe that once this is settled and the assets are placed in the proper hands, that Dillsboro EMS could be up and running within three months."
WCPO reached out to the DEAU board for comment on the complaint but did not receive a response by the time of this publication.
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