The News & Advance
CAMPBELL COUNTY, Va. — Campbell County’s emergency medical services will be a popular topic at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Public Safety Director Tracy Fairchild will ask the supervisors to approve additional career EMS staff and the corresponding equipment, a new EMS fee schedule and repairs for the Rustburg Rescue building.
The request is for six new full-time EMS employees, which is expected to cost $300,000, using money in the EMS revenue recovery program. Fairchild also is asking for approval to purchase another medic vehicle using a Rescue Squad Assistance Program matching grant and money from the county’s capital improvement plan.
Campbell currently has 19 full-time EMS employees and one part-time employee. Of these 15 are assigned to three 24-hour shifts with five on each shift to staff the two medic units around the clock. There also are three shift captains and two members who have an eight hour ambulance shift Monday through Friday.
To help cover the cost of the additional staff, the public safety committee and county staff are requesting the supervisors change the EMS fee structure, including tightening up on collecting methods and adjusting the rates to be more consistent with nearby localities.
Under the recommended option, basic life support would cost $425, and the two versions of advanced life support would cost $525 or $700, and ground transport mileage would be $9.45 per mile.
Fairchild also is asking the supervisors to approve using money from the capital improvement plan for rescue vehicles and facilities to renovate the Rustburg Rescue building and bid out the project.
The building repairs, expected to cost $60,000, were discovered after mold was removed from the hallways and restroom in the fall.
The proposed work includes reinstalling a bathroom, painting, new flooring, kitchen improvements and dividing the old meeting room into a supervisor’s office and storage space for gear and equipment.