The Kossuth County Board of Supervisors and the motorcycle riders’ association known as ABATE are discussing the cost of county services during the group’s annual gathering near Algona.
ABATE of Iowa’s 2025 “Freedom Rally” is scheduled for July 3-6 on a property ABATE owns. Dave Duffy, state coordinator for ABATE of Iowa, said the group had been making a donation to the county to cover emergency medical services, but have stopped helping to pay EMTs.
“We decided not to do a donation to the EMS just because Kossuth County, now being an essential service, gets money from our taxes now where they were a volunteer before,” Duffy said during this week’s supervisors’ meeting, “and they also get paid as they take people in.”
Phil Albers, Kossuth County’s director of Emergency Medical Services, also spoke during the meeting. “I don’t want to build a wall between us and ABATE. I really don’t,” he said. “The very first year ABATE was here, I worked ABATE. I worked first aid stands for many years as a volunteer…When you guys first came, we were able to staff it with volunteers…Now, we have to do it with full-time staff, so our staff are required to give up their 4th of July weekend every year to provide this service.”
Albers said on a typical day, four full-time EMS staff are on duty in the county, but adding several thousand motorcyclists means his staff has to double.
“Last year we ran 19 calls to ABATE Park,” he said, “Friday and Saturday being our busy days.”
Albers has suggested ABATE cover the costs of two EMS staffers being on stand-by during the four day event and he indicated that’s a similar request to organizations having other events in the county.
“We know it’s happening, we have to prepare and we have to cover it properly,” Albers said. “We’re other going to incur the costs ourselves and eat it, or they’re going to help offset the costs. That’s the question.”
Duffy said ABATE had expected their previous donations meant an ambulance would be positioned at the event, but he said that didn’t happen. ABATE has been hosting an annual rally in Iowa for over 40 years. Motorcyclists from as far away as Canada are expected at this year’s event at ABATE Park, which is northeast of Algona and covers about 20 acres.
(Reporting by Brian Wilson, KLGA, Algona)