The Fort Dodge City Council will consider lift assist fees when it meets at its next regularly scheduled meeting. A lift assist is a service performed by Fort Dodge Fire when an individual falls and requires assistance getting back up.
According to a memo from Fire Chief Matt Price, the requested action is due to a growing trend of non-emergent lift-assists. The goal is to offset costs, typically fuel and labor, resulting from the lift assist calls.
The fees proposed will have two structures – one for staffed facilities such as assisted living facilities and doctors offices, and the other being normal residential settings where staffed support is not available.
The fee for staffed facilities will be $500 per incident, with the fee being assessed to the facility.
The fee for normal residential facilities would be a little different. That fee would only be assessed on the third or subsequent call within a 12 month calendar year. That fee would be $150, which would be assigned to the resident.
We reached out to Chief Price, and were informed that Fort Dodge Fire Rescue responded to 237 lift assists in 2025, where crews simply helped an individual ‘up’ and return to the station. That number is lift assists only – not including fall calls (an additional 224) that result in a transport to hospital. If the proposed resolution was in effect in 2025, there could have been 5 facilities and 17 residences that could have been subject to billing.
The Fort Dodge City Council will meet for their regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening at 6:00PM in the Council Chambers at the Municipal Building.
