City Communicates OnFocus – The Marshfield Police and Fire Commission approved adding a fifth ambulance to the fleet at their meeting on August 9th.
“As discussed during the budget meeting, we’re due to replace an ambulance this year. We are on a three-year rotation for ambulances, and typically when we trade in an ambulance we get about six thousand dollars,” said Scott Owen Marshfield Fire and Rescue Department Chief. “Lately, it seems that we’ve had all four ambulances out, more times than I can ever remember. Last week alone, we had eight or nine calls in the span of twenty minutes, one fire call mixed in there, and everybody in the station was out.
“There’s also several times when an ambulance is in the shop for even routine maintenance, oil change or whatever, and we get several calls at the same time,” continued Owen.
“There’s been multiple times when having that fifth ambulance would have been beneficial,” said Deputy Chief in charge of EMS Steve Bakos. “One of the ambulances had engine issues earlier this year and was down for at least a week and a half, if not two weeks. We did not have a loaner ambulance at that time, so we were down to three here. One of our ambulances is out right now after hitting a deer a month ago. We currently have a loaner for that one, but again that ambulance is not set up with our radio system so we’re trying to use it sparingly.”
According to Chief Owen, the new ambulance is already part of the 2019 budget but needed the approval of the commission to retain the ambulance that would normally be traded in.
The commission voted 4-0 to approve retaining the fifth ambulance.
