The completion of the Community Care Ambulance station addition to the Middlefield Township offices on Madison Road was celebrated with a well-attended open-house May 21.
The completion of the Community Care Ambulance station addition to the Middlefield Township offices on Madison Road was celebrated with a well-attended open-house May 21.
Emergency medical service teams, township and Middlefield Village officials and area residents converged on the new station to admire the spacious meeting rooms, bunk rooms, day room, kitchen, laundry room and restrooms, then enjoy a catered lunch in the ambulance bay.
It was a joyous occasion culminating five years of planning that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and complicated by skyrocketing construction costs.
Middlefield Township Trustee Paul Porter said trustees and CCA recognized the difficulty of having EMTs and paramedics co-existing with township employees and officials at the township office building on the south side of the ambulance bays.
“The fiscal officer uses the town hall. They were stepping on each other. It was a problem,” he recalled.
Trustees started planning to enlarge the facility in 2019.
“Then COVID hit and everything got derailed,” he said.
By the time they got back to the drawing board, the original cost of about $550,000 for an addition had significantly increased.
“It ended up at $800,000,” Porter said.
The project was out of the question — until the American Recovery Plan Act kicked in and the township joined the ranks of governing bodies across the nation collecting the well-earned largess.
“We were able to get the ball rolling again,” Porter said. “ARPA bridged the funding gap between what we had and the price increase.”
Township and CCA officials contracted with Sean Thompson of TMA Architects to design the addition, which is the mirror image of the structure on the south side of the bays, Porter said.
“It gives it a campus look. The symmetry worked out great,” he said.
CCA contracts to cover both the village and the township for ambulance calls. The township building is located just south of Middlefield Village on Madison Road. CCA also provides mutual aid for other fire and EMS departments when asked, said CCA Operations Supervisor Jennifer Nugen.
Four crews rotate through the station with between two and 12 emergency medical technicians and paramedics staffing the facility, depending on demand, she said.
Josh Burnett, CCA CEO, spoke briefly, thanking township officials for their commitment to the project.
He and CCA Director of Administration Chris Brooks showed off the new ambulance that will be dedicated to the Middlefield station.
The vehicle, which cost about $400,000, is a large model giving paramedics the equipment and space to treat a patient, he said.
Smaller models are used strictly for transferring patients from place to place, he added.
“It’s an investment back into the community,” he said, adding CCA, with about 180 employees, has contracted with the village and township for about 20 years and CCA is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
The company has about 180 employees and also is the primary 911 provider for the city of Ashtabula, Andover Township and Village, Williamsfield Township and Wayne Township, according to its website.
“CCA is very happy, we’re very happy,” Porter said. “This is going to be a win-win.”
