Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Stone Mills Ambulance Base paramedics were prepared to jump into action Wednesday afternoon when a tone sounded in the middle of a ceremony to mark the official grand opening of the building at 4261 County Rd 4 in Centreville.
They quickly relaxed when the voice over the dispatch announced the tone was simply a congratulations to mark the grand opening of the facility. The crowd of county staff, emergency crew members and councillors then offered a round of applause.
“With Stone Mills being the only municipality in the county without an ambulance base, the need to build one was obvious,” said Mark Schjerning, chief of Lennox and Addington County Emergency Services. “Now having the ambulance operational in Stone Mills for over a year, we’ve seen a positive impact.”
The current base has been in operation since June 19 of this year and prior to that in a temporary home out of the Stone Mills Works Garage since June 2018.
Designed by Colbourne & Kembel Architects Inc., the base cost $1.7 million in land fees, construction and furnishing.
The Stone Mills base was built in a similar fashion to the one in Northbrook.
“We took the lessons learned from the 2013 project and looked to make improvements,” said Schjerning. “Many staff provided feedback and suggestions on how we could modify the Northbrook base to make it better. We then worked with our architect to see what we see here today.”
From July 1, 2018 to July 1 of this year, the base has responded to 563 calls, 79 per cent of which were in Stone Mills.
“This beautiful new facility ensures that we can continue to provide vital services for residents of our township and for our neighbouring municipalities,” said L&A County warden Eric Smith. “This is now the fifth ambulance base to occupy Lennox and Addington County. This demonstrates the commitment that county council has to ensuring that ambulance services are continued to be provided at the highest level possible.”
Smith noted they’ve already seen a positive impact on response times.
“Since 2018 we have seen significant reduction in the response time to emergency calls within Stone Mills Township,” said Smith. “In the first year of operation, they’ve improved by over four and a half minutes during daytime shifts when the base was staffed.”
Along with Stone Mills and Northbrook, the county has bases located in Napanee, Denbigh and Loyalist. Each houses one ambulance with the exception of Napanee, which has two, one 24 hours, the other in operation 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Stone Mills and Denbigh has an ambulance operational from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. while the other three have one in operation 24 hours a day.