Ohio County EMS To Get Living Quarters | News, Sports, Jobs

Ohio County emergency squad workers soon will have a place to live and relax while on duty and not on call.

The footers are currently being placed for a residential trailer donated by the Wetzel County Commission that will be placed behind Books-A-Million at The Highlands, close to the garage where the county’s ambulances are housed.

The garage was built to house two county-owned ambulances after Ohio County began offering supplemental emergency assistance to the county’s volunteer fire department in January 2020.

That service grew until the county expanded the service to a 24-hour, seven day a week emergency squad in January of this year. There now are two EMT’s working at all times at the garage, with a third called in when bad weather is expected.

“Now with 24-hour service, we have to have some crew quarters,” explained County Administrator Randy Russell. “They need someplace to be.

“We built a garage for the ambulances, but we did not anticipate offering 24-hour service. The need for crew quarters has become obvious.”

Seeing a need in Ohio County, the Wetzel County commissioners stepped forward to offer a trailer donated to them by Air Evac Lifestream air medical base closed in New Martinsville.

The trailer is slightly larger than a single-wide trailer, and is valued at $55,000, according to Russell.

“They offered it to us at no cost,” he said.

Once the footers are poured, Ohio County will pay to have the trailer brought to The Highlands location, Russell continued.

After that, water, sewer and electric lines will need to be run to the trailer, but they are close by and easily available, he added.

In total, the county will invest about $12,000 in the project, according to Russell.