"I can't guarantee what service is going to be here in six months, but the units of government will always be here, so they can decide who they want to contract with." Bayfield County Emergency Management Director Meagan Quaderer told the County Board this in September, as reported by the Ashland Daily Press.
That sentence explains how emergency medical coverage works in Port Wing. The county does not run the ambulance, and neither does the state. The Town of Port Wing makes the decision, along with three neighboring towns that share one volunteer service. In 2026 the county chose to strengthen that arrangement instead of replacing it. If you are comparing Lake Superior south shore towns for a full-time or seasonal home, the ambulance is part of what you are buying into. It is run by local government at a scale most buyers never see.
One Ambulance Service, Four Town Boards
Port Wing's ambulance coverage comes from South Shore Area Ambulance Service. The Bayfield-Ashland County EMS Council lists the service at 86980 Lake Avenue in Herbster, covering the townships of Clover, Orienta, Bell and Port Wing. In county planning documents, South Shore is one of seven volunteer Basic Life Support ambulance services in Bayfield County. The others are Barnes, Bayfield, Iron River, Mason, Red Cliff and Washburn. Ashland Fire Department and Great Divide EMS are the county's two career services at the paramedic level.
The county's own EMS proposal draft says geography, not call volume, has long decided where ambulances sit in Bayfield County. It also says the system "has been largely unchanged for decades." In practice, an emergency call from a cabin off Highway 13 depends on whether enough local volunteers are on call that day. When they are not, dispatch pages the next service.
How the Strain Built Up in 2026
The pressure on South Shore shows up in town records before it reached the news. In order:
- April 13. Port Wing's town board minutes recorded the resignations of Jeff Byerhof and Stacy Danula from South Shore Ambulance. They also noted that as of July 1, South Shore Area Ambulance "will have severely curtailed ambulance coverage."
- June 10. Town of Clover minutes show Byerhof, still serving as ambulance director, reporting 53 calls so far that year and a three-year renewal of the service's license.
- June 22. WPR reported that four towns could lose South Shore's service by July 1 because two of its nine EMTs were retiring. WPR also reported that the volunteers answering 911 calls averaged over 60 years old.
- September 12. The Town of Orienta's meeting agenda listed eight South Shore calls across Bell, Clover and Port Wing. It also listed two calls handled by Washburn EMS and one by Red Cliff "due to low staffing."
The countywide numbers show the same pattern. WPR reported that Bayfield County ambulance services missed 108 of 1,853 emergency calls in 2025, up 83 percent from 2024. In the same story, Byerhof described waiting with a patient for 90 minutes before an ambulance arrived from Minnesota. County EMS coordinator Bryan Ziemann described pages over the 2025 holidays that went to an ambulance from the Duluth-Superior area because six other services could not respond.
The Backup Ambulance the County Chose Not to Buy
The county had a direct option in front of it. A public information packet, which Port Wing posted on its town website in July, narrowed five proposals down to two finalists.
| Finalist | What it offered | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ashland Fire Department | One dedicated ambulance and crew, 24 hours a day, three or four days a week to start | About $360,000 or $460,000 for the second half of 2026; about $1.5 million a year for full-time service |
| Essentia Health EMS | One paramedic-level ambulance, staffed 24/7, co-dispatched with local services | Proposed $990,000 county subsidy in year one, rising over a five-year contract |
Both proposals were designed to supplement local services, not replace them. At its July 28 meeting, though, the County Board took up a different motion from the floor. According to the official minutes, the board voted to budget $1,000,000 in 2027 for financial help to the existing EMS providers, covering recruitment, training, retention, on-call pay and coordination. The amendment passed 8–5 and the amended motion passed 7–6.
On September 29 the board approved the finished version, the Bayfield County EMS Performance Assistance Program, with no votes against it, according to the Ashland Daily Press.
How the Money Reaches Port Wing
The program's design is the key to everything else in this story. As the Ashland Daily Press described it, the money covers January through December 2027 and goes to the county's 29 units of government, not to the ambulance services directly:
| Half of the $1 million | How it is divided |
|---|---|
| $500,000 | $30 per resident, using the 2020 census. This replaces the $20,000 annual EMS stipend each local government now receives |
| $500,000 | By call volume, with a cap. Leftover money goes to agencies that meet all performance metrics |
The money also comes with conditions. Each local government and its EMS provider must document and maintain a service agreement. The town must keep its own EMS spending at or above its 2026 average and show the funds went only to eligible costs. Each town must also join a new countywide coverage support system, so providers can warn neighbors and dispatchers ahead of time when they cannot cover a shift.
Taken together, these rules mean the county's 2027 help reaches South Shore only through the Port Wing, Clover, Orienta and Bell town boards, and only if those boards keep up their own spending and put the arrangement in writing. Quaderer told the board that the first year involves "some building to do."
What the Four Towns Have Done This Fall
The towns started work before the county finished its plan, and their public records show it:
- A four-town advisory board meeting. On August 28, South Shore's participating towns met at the Historic Gym in Herbster to discuss the ambulance's future for Clover, Orienta, Port Wing and Bell.
- New local responders. Port Wing's September 10 minutes report seven sign-ups for an Emergency Medical Responder class. The $487 cost is waived for anyone who passes the test. Orienta's agenda lists an EMR class running September 19 through December 19 at the Herbster town hall.
- Talks with a neighboring service. The same Port Wing minutes say Town Chair Scott Jardine met with Iron River EMS "to discuss possibilities of using their services." Iron River Ambulance Service lists its area as the towns of Iron River, Oulu, Tripp, Hughes and Delta. Bayfield County figures cited by the Ashland Daily Press put the Iron River EMS District at 231.33 miles and 2,689 residences, with over 310 calls in 2023.
- Public meetings. Port Wing held an ambulance discussion at Town Hall on September 21. A second session on September 28 at the Herbster Historic Gym asked for citizen feedback. The October 13 town board agenda included an EMS update.
- Equipment financing. At a September 11 special meeting, the Town of Clover board voted unanimously to borrow up to $100,000 over five years at 6 percent from the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands to finance a new ambulance.
The 2027 county money will follow whatever agreement comes out of these meetings in Port Wing and Herbster.
Questions to Bring to a Port Wing Purchase
For a buyer, this changes the practical question from "is there an ambulance" to "what has the town agreed to, and with whom." The public record gives you a place to start:
- What did the Port Wing town board decide at or after its October 13 meeting, and is there a written EMS service agreement for 2027?
- Is South Shore still the primary responder for the address you are considering, and which services handle calls it cannot staff?
- Has the town kept its EMS funding at its 2026 level, which the county requires for the new program?
- When the EMR class at the Herbster town hall finishes on December 19, will its new responders be part of the local response?
Port Wing posts its minutes, agendas and meeting notices at portwing.gov, and the Town of Clover posts its records on herbsterwisconsin.com. Those two sites carry the history of this decision as it happens, faster than any summary will.
A Few Quick Answers
Does the county's $1 million go straight to South Shore Area Ambulance? No. According to the Ashland Daily Press, the money goes to local governments, which then pass it to their ambulance services.
When does the county program start? It covers January through December 2027.
Did the county hire Essentia or Ashland Fire? No. The July 28 minutes state that the amended motion ruled out voting on either supplemental proposal.
Questions like these come up as you look at a lake home, cabin or acreage parcel on the south shore, and so do others that never appear in a listing. Peggy Kman has worked in Bayfield County since 1996 and can help you find the town records and local contacts that apply to the property you are considering. Schedule a free consultation, and we will start with the town board records.
