QuickTake:

The Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District wants its ambulance to transport patients and reduce response times. A proposed change to county code may make that happen. 

Lane County commissioners are working on a proposal that could allow more than one ambulance service provider to operate in the same service area. 

Commissioners heard a presentation about the proposal Tuesday, Oct. 13, and scheduled a hearing and vote for Tuesday, Nov. 3. The proposal comes because the Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District received a donated ambulance and has about a dozen volunteer firefighters who are also certified emergency medical technicians. 

The district wants to provide some emergency medical care when it can to reduce wait times in life-threatening situations. 

However, that equipment and training aren’t sufficient to allow the rural district to begin making calls and transporting patients. Eugene Springfield Fire is responsible for that ambulance service area, and the Upper McKenzie ambulance isn’t authorized to make patient transports.

Under state law, counties are required to develop ambulance service areas and plans and submit them to the Oregon Health Authority. The ambulance service area that stretches all the way up to the Upper McKenzie area is part of Springfield’s ambulance service area, which is about 1,400 square miles. 

Upper McKenzie has “a service they can provide and we just want to be able to help facilitate that as a county,” said Commissioner Heather Buch, whose district includes the Upper McKenzie region.

The county proposal would allow an ambulance service provider to request permission to provide emergency medical transport services in an ambulance service area already served by another provider. 

When seconds count: A licensed rural ambulance still can’t transport Upper McKenzie patients 

The proposal represents a shift away from having an exclusive provider assigned to each ambulance service area, but it also doesn’t guarantee any provider access to respond to calls. Under the proposal, the organization that wants to operate in a particular area still would need an agreement with the assigned ambulance provider that’s already serving the region to “create an understanding” between the two organizations, a county memo states. 

In an interview, Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Michael Caven said he expects an intergovernmental agreement would come before his agency’s board if the county approves the proposal.

The proposal comes in response to the Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District, but its changes to county code would apply to other ambulance service districts and providers in the future. 

Even with an agreement in hand, if approved, Eugene Springfield Fire would still respond to some emergency calls in the Upper McKenzie region. For example, Upper McKenzie is a primarily volunteer force and is not available to respond to calls 24 hours a day like Eugene Springfield Fire, which has a paid staff. 

In 2025, Eugene Springfield Fire responded to 187 incidents in the Upper McKenzie area and made 94 transports, according to department data. 

In an interview with Lookout, Fire District Chief Joel Zeni said the county’s planned action is a “good step.” After the county’s approval, Zeni said he hopes to see an intergovernmental agreement in place as soon as possible. 

“At least we’re making progress, so I feel really good about that,” he said. “It’s going to make a difference.”

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.