New Pocahontas Ambulance a Step Towards 24-7 County-Wide Service
After the December 2nd Pocahontas County Commission meeting, we interviewed Commission President John Rebinski and Emergency Medical Service Director Chris Lusk about where we stand with providing paid ambulance service in the entire county.
Chris, do you want to start off?
“Currently we are running out of Green Bank, seven days a week,” said Lusk. “In the Southern part of the county, we are having some nights that we are able to cover as well, and that is all night long from five pm down to seven in the morning. We do have one ambulance that’s getting picked up very soon that had to be re-lettered, and we have one that’s in-service and fully stocked and running calls, then we have one that currently being used as a back-up spare.”
John?
“We had gotten into the situation with the county where we are always dependent, very heavily on volunteers, which was a good success story, they saved this county a lot of funds by volunteering,” said Rebinski. “And it was a really good system that was working in our county, but unfortunately over the years, volunteering has kind-of died out, and due to the lack of volunteers, we had to look into a new direction, and look at a new system to continue to help continuing providing ambulance coverage for Pocahontas County. So, we decided to start a paid Pocahontas County Ambulance Service in the county to help take care of and address that issue due to the lack of our volunteers being able to cover the county 24-7 like they have graciously in the past.”
John, I understand that you just got a brand-new ambulance – which is, by the way, sitting right behind us as we speak.
“Yes, we picked it up about a month ago (in) September, and we have that up in operation,” said Rebinski. “It’s been approved by the state, and it’s currently the ambulance that’s been going back and forth between the Northern end of the county during the day, and then in the evening, in the Southern end of the county”
“Another thing, just to bring out too, we are trying to provide coverage for the Southern end, trying to cover the current nights,” Rebinski said, “because due to funding (issues,) which we are trying to address, we are not able to cover seven nights a week on the lower end. So, the Pocahontas County Ambulance has been doing between three and four nights a week, and then we’ve been coordinating with Marlinton’s ambulance crew that is still helping us out- volunteering in the evening, and then PMH’s ambulance, when they are staffed, to help provide coverage seven nights a week here in the lower end of the county.”
Anything else?
“Yeah, I think, just let folks know we started operations in August of 2023, so we’ve been in operation two-two and a half years now,” said Rebinski. “And, it seems like we’ve been continuously improving, covering more challenges, and getting the system up. Our goal is to eventually have 24-7 (ambulance service) as things progress forward. But our biggest thing right now is finding the additional funding. We have some ideas out there that we are looking at to come up with that funding. And, I hope when the folks in the county hear about that, that they realize how important it is to get this funding, so that we have adequate ambulance service in Pocahontas County, because it is really important –a matter of life and death. So, I just wanted the folks and the residents in the county to realize the importance and the expense that goes along with it, because it is very expensive to provide 24-7 paid coverage for ambulance service.”
Thank you, John, and Chris.
We also took a photograph of the brand-new ambulance just put into service in the county
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