To offer quicker response times for the 3,300 residents of Collingsworth County, Wellington has opened a new emergency medical service (EMS) station. EMS officials respond to an average of 300 emergency calls yearly and with the new upgrades and a new ambulance coming, they hope to draw in more help.
"We only have eight volunteers right now," EMS Administrator Tammy Riley said. "Our board president is in the process of getting a class approved through Department of State Health Services so we can get a basic class and get more volunteers."
Before the opening of the new facility, crews stored their equipment inside small cabinets and housed their ambulances in three different locations.
"We have always had the garage that held the ambulances behind our hospital," Riley said. "Our office was up town and now we are able to be housed in one office here."
The 32,000 square foot building is providing enough space for three ambulances, an office, a classroom, one bedroom, kitchen and a climate control closet.
Riley said this year Texas passed a new regulation for the storage of EMS medication....a regulation which Wellington couldn't comply with.
"In our other facility we did not have the climate control that we needed, now we have air conditioning and heating so we are in compliance with the state now."