During the regular meeting of the Adrian Board of Aldermen on November 9th, this plan was unveiled and "the timing couldn't be better" according to Fire Chief Gary Dizney who told Mid America Live that while his department is running an ever increasing number of medical calls, having an ambulance readily available will certainly speed up response times as much as 20 minutes or so, depending on location.
Those sentiments were echoed by Bates County Memorial Hospital CEO Greg Weaver as well as Chad Stark, representing emergency services, who were present at the meeting along with several hospital board members.
"The data shows that the ever increasing amount of calls in northern Bates county, coupled with the fact that Adrian fire department covers a very large area, it only makes sense to have an ambulance with crew dispatched from Adrian, which will absolutely be of benefit" said Weaver who added that doing such would not affect current operations in Butler.
As the discussion continued, it seems there is only one major hurdle- where to house the ambulance and crew in Adrian as the fire station is currently full to capacity with one vehicle now having to be stored at another location.
Adrian City Administrator Ryan Wescote agreed that city buildings are in short supply, and the only logical answer would be to build one, which brought a response from Alderman Jeremy Bridges who suggested that in doing so, the city should plan ahead so the building could be used for something else, if for some reason the agreement with BCMH would ever be terminated.
Those present agreed with his logic. With that, Bridges made a motion to accept the offer from the hospital and move ahead with the project which will certainly be a leading topic in the upcoming December 14 alderman meeting; the public is highly encouraged to attend.
Mid America Live will continue to follow this story with regular progress updates.
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