CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More funding in the form of $1 million is going toward the ongoing project to build new and permanent ambulance stations across four Kanawha County locations.
Governor Jim Justice met with the Kanawha County Commission and the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority at its Charleston-based headquarters Thursday afternoon to grant the $1 million in non-federal matching funds for KCEAA’s project.
They plan to build the four stations in South Charleston, St. Albans, Marmet and Dunbar, and are projecting for it to total $5 million when complete.
The EMS service has already obtained state and federal funding from various sources to soon get construction underway for the project, and Justice said he was glad he could be a contributing partner in the endeavor.
“It will save some lives, it will make it absolutely faster for us to get there at these four destinations and everything, and the goodness that all of you are doing,” said Justice.
KCEAA Executive Director Monica Mason said they currently rent properties to serve as EMS stations in those locations, but she said this project will give them the ability to have the proper space to house their ambulances, better accommodate their EMS personnel, and to own their own stations outright.
“We currently are in those communities it’s just that these will be stations that are owned by Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority,” she said. “They will be stations that will house our employees but will also be able to get our vehicles out of the weather and they will be able to be in a garage bay at those facilities as well.”
Kanawha County Commission President Lance Wheeler said this project will meet a critical need for the county.
“We want to make sure we have ambulances available throughout the county, you know, we are a very big county, we want to make sure there is an ambulance close by whenever they are needed the most, whether it’s critical care, sometimes that could be a stroke, could be a heart attack, it could be a baby choking,” Wheeler said.
It has been a challenging time for EMS services nationwide following the Covid-19 Pandemic, and the EMS services in West Virginia has been hit particularly hard as many stations across the state have been forced to close down due to lack of funding.
Mason said it’s crucial for them to be making these upgrades at such a challenging time for emergency services across the board, but she said it’s all made possible through the outside support they receive.
“This will definitely be able to help Kanawha County with the funding helping us, but yes, permanent funding as a whole is needed, very, very needed for all EMS across the state and Kanawha County EMS as well,” Mason said.
She said more permanent funding coming in for EMS services is something they have been requesting for a long time.
Wheeler said these four locations to establish new EMS facilities were chosen as they are near the interstate and high-density areas as well as near residential areas.
He said they will help save money and boost efficiency during such a challenging time for EMS.
“This is part of an effective and efficient program of having these substations, so that way these trucks aren’t just driving around waiting for a call, they have a place to be parked, they have a place to be maintained, and we’re not using that expensive fuel that we see today, so this is going to be less cost-reductive and this is going to be to get to a scene when minutes matter,” said Wheeler.