Last week officials celebrated the first day of operations for the new ambulance station in Rowan County. The John ‘Pete’ B. Hamm Ambulance Station had its ceremonial opening and ribbon cutting early last month, and EMS workers stationed there responded to their first call on Thursday, February 1.
The station, named after a former Rowan County EMT, is located on the south side of the city of Morehead. Officials said with the addition of this facility, service to the city has been essentially split in half, with station one serving the north end.
Harry Clark, Rowan County Judge Executive, said the new station will be a boon for the city, allowing ambulances to reach those who need help faster.
“I heard a call yesterday in city limits. It was probably pretty close to the station two for example, and it went, just a much quicker response time. And it just allows us so much flexibility that we’ve never had before,” said Clark.
Clark said operations have been going smoothly.
“It’s just so much easier to run, to split the city, to split the ambulances going on one side of the city and one on the other side and I know we’re not that big a city but I tell you traffic can get narrowed pretty quick in town, so we’re just excited about it. The crews like it, we like it, and the citizens are going to gain from it,” said Clark.
Clark said station one has one full-time crew, and station two, the new facility, will have three full-time crews along with an additional crew operating from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. This additional crew will be used to help transfer patients to other hospitals while making sure there are still enough crews to service the area.
On the first day of operation, Clark said station one had a total of three runs and one transfer, station two had 11 runs and three transfers.