At last Tuesday night’s Fiscal Court meeting, Magistrates Wayne Gunnell and David Brown told the court that after reviewing the plans, EMS personnel wanted more room to house ambulances in the structure that would serve as a bay.

“We’re trying to think years ahead instead of days,” Gunnell said. “Other EMSs are saying you have to plan for five years of growth.”

Initial plans depicted one 40 x 60 foot structure would house living and meeting quarters of bedrooms, bathrooms, storage rooms, a kitchen, utility room, offices and a meeting room. A covered breezeway connects this building to the four-bay ambulance garage.

“They (EMS) would like an apron built onto the garage and 20 more feet in the bay area,” Gunnell said.

The additional space would allow for two more ambulances.

“If we’re running a 24-hour service, we’re not going to need to run four ambulances,” Henry County Judge/Executive Tommy Bryant said.

Gunnell suggested that it would be cheaper to build the larger facility now than it would be in five years when additional space was needed if growth projections were an indication of the need for extended EMS services in the future.

“Even if we need two more ambulances they won’t all run out of the same building,” Magistrate Cecil McCarty said. “If we get that big we’ll have to have satellite stations in other areas of the county.”

When a consensus could not be reached among the magistrates, Brown suggested that the project be bid out twice at each size to glean better understanding of the price difference between the two sizes. Many magistrates were concerned that the additional 20 percent would result in a substantial increase in construction costs, and could possibly exceed the $150,000 grant received to fund the project.

“If it comes up to be too much, I’ll be the first one to vote against it,” Gunnell said.

In other business

• Bids will be requested for the purchase of a new ambulance for the Eminence EMS Department. A 10-year-old ambulance with over 76,000 miles on it creates hazardous operating conditions, according to Gunnell. The department would rather have a “box” ambulance, which would cost around $60,000, than a “van” ambulance, which would run about $40,000.