In this photo from Monday, Oct. 27, 2014, members of a Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical crew load a cyclist into an ambulance.

Douglas County commissioners approved a resolution Wednesday increasing rates for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical for 2016 and the following two years.

When the last of the increases becomes effective in 2018, rates for the service will be 25 percent higher than 2015 levels. The Lawrence City Commission is also required to approved the joint resolution.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical charges five different rates depending on the level of care a patient requires. The rate for the lowest level, requiring no specialized care, will increase to $547 in 2016 and then to $595 in 2018. The rate for the greatest level of care, in which patients are administered at least three intravenous drugs and receive such advanced procedures as an endotracheal intubation, will increase from to $712 this year and jump to $774 in 2018. Mileage rates charged for transporting patients will increase to $8.49 per mile this year for all levels of care.

The resolution also set the cost of standby service at high school events at $13 per quarter hour with no provision to increase the fee during the three-year span.

The increases, which were approved with the commission’s consent agenda, were first brought to commissioners in December. At that time, County Administrator Craig Weinaug said the increases would allow the ambulance service to leverage as many Medicare and Medicaid dollars as possible and, therefore, help limit property tax support for the department.

In other business, the commission:

• Authorized Eileen Horn, county sustainability coordinator, and Helen Schnoes, food systems coordinator, to negotiate a contract with SCALE Inc. of Virginia to conduct a countywide farmers’ market analysis for $47,500 in 2016. A USDA Farmers’ Market Promotion Program Grant of $53,650 the county received last spring will pay for the survey.

The seven farmers’ markets sites in the county are the downtown Lawrence Farmers’ Market, at Cottin’s Hardware, at Clinton Parkway Nursery and in the communities of Baldwin City, Eudora and Lecompton.

Horn told commissioners the remaining money in the grant would be used to compensate the consultant for a follow-up effort in 2017 of working with the seven farmers’ markets on how they can implement the recommendations of the survey.

• Approved a request from Kansas University swim team coach Clark Campbell to have a Sept. 17 national collegiate championship open-water swim meet at Lone Star Lake. The event will require closing the lake to other activities from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 16 and 6 a.m. to noon the day of the meet. The College Swimming Coaches Association of America will sanction the men and women’s 5-kilometer championships and provide insurance for the event.

• Approved an agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation to treat the rights of way of state roads for noxious weeds in return for compensation for chemical, labor and equipment costs.

• Renewed an agreement with Blue Valley Public Safety to service the county’s 41 sirens and associated equipment for $29,000.