By Bob Laylo
Morning Call
Copyright 2007 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
CARBON COUNTY, Penn. — Lehigh Valley Hospital wants to station a medical helicopter near Carbon County’s 911 center in Nesquehoning to save precious time during an emergency.
The hospital has been sending the MedEvac helicopter to Carbon County for 25 years, hospital spokesman Brian Downs said, but it was only in November that it placed a helicopter at a private residence near Weatherly and designated it for the area.
But that site in Lausanne Township was never meant to be permanent, Downs said, and the hospital has been searching for another site to station the helicopter.
The hospital had considered a site near the Tonolli Superfund site in Nesquehoning, but withdrew the plan because of concerns about contamination. And the Nesquehoning Zoning Hearing Board rejected a variance request to build a helipad on land owned by Kovatch Corp., after a neighbor objected.
The latest plan also requires a variance from the Zoning Hearing Board because the site is in an area zoned residential. The board has scheduled a hearing for 6:30 p.m. Monday.
County and hospital officials said the helipad would benefit the county.
“Time is critical when you are talking about trauma, heart attack or stroke,” Downs said.
PennSTAR, the University of Pennsylvania Health System helicopter service, has had a helicopter stationed at the Jacob Arner Memorial Airport in Mahoning Township for more than a year. But county 911 Director Gary Williams said there’s room for two helipads.
“We pushed pretty hard for this,” he said.
Williams said the 911 center alternates dispatching the two helicopter services, with one flying on odd-numbered days and the other on even-numbered days.
But he said the county often needs two helicopter transports simultaneously.
“It’s not unusual to have two aircraft up at the same time,” Williams said.
Williams said Lehigh Valley Hospital has agreed to provide a trailer where it will station its helicopter crews. The crew, Downs said, usually consists of a pilot, nurse and paramedic, and they typically have one or two flights a day out of Carbon County.
The trailer, Williams said, will have electricity, water and a sewage connection.
County Administrator Randall Smith said the commissioners will sign a long-term lease if the hospital gets permission to build the helipad. He said the hospital would pay all the expenses of pad construction.
Downs said Lehigh Valley Hospital has three other helipads in the surrounding region -- one in Pottsville, one at the Stroudsburg Airport and the other at Kutztown Airport.