AID – Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Service officials expect to cut the ribbon today on the first rural ambulance station in Lawrence County.

Saturday, June 17, 2000

AID – Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Service officials expect to cut the ribbon today on the first rural ambulance station in Lawrence County.

Crews were making final building inspections on the new Aid station Friday, SEOEMS executive director Eric Kuhn said.

If some work needs to be finished, then the station will open by the end of the week but today’s open house at 2 p.m. will still be held, Kuhn said.

"We’re looking forward to the opening because this is our first rural station," Kuhn added.

Area residents are looking forward to it, too, because it means better access to emergency care and a new home for the Aid Volunteer Fire Department, county commissioner Paul Herrell said.

"People are getting excited," said Herrell, who lives at Aid. "We’ve just not had that kind of ambulance service out here.

"They did the very best they could do but they were not able to get to us quick enough and now they can," he said.

Also, Aid firefighters will share the building, transforming part into their new station, Herrell added.

In a cooperative effort with the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization, the commission helped develop the new Aid stations. The county, which helps fund SEOEMS’s multi-county operation, also helped fund the project.

The county’s desire to boost ambulance response times to emergency situations in parts of Lawrence County like Waterloo, Wilgus and Aid prompted the idea, Kuhn said.

"Right now, if you call for an ambulance out there, it’s 25 to 30 minutes before it arrives," he said.

"After today, if you call for an ambulance, it will be 5 to 15 minutes and we will have trained paramedics and EMTs in the community."

Paramedic Mack Yates of Ironton is the station chief. The station will be staffed with one ambulance, full-time paramedics and EMTs.

"While our initial estimates are that approximately 25 emergency medical calls will be generated from this station, I expect that the volume will increase once the public learns of its availability," Kuhn said.

The new station also offers more efficiency to Ironton and Proctorville stations – the two that frequently responded to county emergencies, he added.

"The ambulances in Proctorville and Ironton not going out there now will be available more often."

It gives SEOEMS lots of flexibility in keeping the whole of Lawrence County covered, Kuhn said.