As it stands today, if Iola wants to make use of the county’s ambulance station in the 400 block of North State Street it will pay rent of $250 a month.
A protracted conversation, first among Allen County commissioners and then with Ryan Sell, who will direct merged ambulance service, wove its way to that outcome Tuesday morning.
Chairman Dick Works said he was in no hurry to decide and if the city were to take it over, he thought there should be monthly rent, the eventual decision.
Sell said the building would provide office and training space, as well as a place where apparatus could be stored, including two ambulances that won’t be used on a daily basis.
With the merger, the service will have six ambulances immediately available, four that were part of the county fleet and two used by the city. Two will be dispatched from Iola and one each from Humboldt and Moran under Iola’s guidance.
Finding a place for training “is a challenge in the city,” Sell said, and office space will shrink when the deputy chief’s office at Iola’s fire-ambulance station is converted to sleeping quarters for female employees.
The county building also would be ideal as a central supply depot, he said.
“It’s a component that would make us more successful,” Sell said.
Commissioner Tom Williams said he was eager “to get (the merger) off ground, and for it to succeed.”
He also sees the county building as an integral part of the merger moving forward.
Another consideration for the structure was as new quarters for the Allen County Volunteers fire department, which has been stationed at the RV park at the west edge of town. The volunteers pay $350 a month for space there to house their trucks and equipment, Counselor Alan Weber said.
When discussions shook out to Works’ proposal to rent the building to the city for $250 a month, he added the old James Implement building, 510 N. State, could be made available to the volunteers. He proposed its rent at $100 a month. Commissioners did not discuss whether the county or the volunteers would be responsible for upgrades the building might need.
Works told Sell to return next Tuesday with a firm proposal for the city’s use of the building, including a decision or counter proposal on the rent.
“I want to see something concrete,” said Commissioner Jim Talkington.
“I FEEL LIKE the county has bent over backward” to do the merger, Works said, “while the city keeps asking for more.”
Williams was more cooperative, saying he was “willing to work with the city” and it was common sense to think that “when two agencies merge more room will be needed.”
The city had considered expanding its fire-ambulance station, 408 N. Washington, which was knocked down by the structure being in the Coon Creek floodway. That led to the county ambulance building being an important part of the merger from Iola’s perspective.
Contact Bob Johnson by email at bob@iolaregister.com.
Ambulance building still unsettled
