Vern Grindstaff, chair of the Mitchell Board of Commission, thanked Mission Health for its relationship with the county while also thanking the EMS staff for the job they do.

“I personally believe we have world-class paramedics working for Mitchell County EMS,” he said.

The new facility is part office and part home. It includes four bedrooms – each with a television – a full kitchen and living area with a large a flat-screen TV. 

There is a locker room with showers and a laundry room with a washer and dryer. 

The building has three garage bays, offices, a reception area and a training room. The county’s EMS team has 14 full-time paramedics, a director, assistant director and a receptionist.

In his remarks, Grindstaff urged voters to support the ballot referendum in the upcoming election that, if approved, would increase the county’s sales tax from 6.75 percent to 7 percent. The extra revenue would fund a third ambulance to operate in the county.  

"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."

McAdams recently sought approval for an extended reciprocal agreement that will allow the city to borrow fire trucks from neighboring Sterling Heights, as needed.

The council unanimously approved that request in late August, and last week McAdams said the process of replacing fire trucks is now ongoing. He said the city will likely take delivery of its first new truck -- a 75-foot ladder apparatus that will also serve as a fire engine -- by mid-November. The city is currently finalizing a bid request for two more fire engines and a 100-foot ladder, with an estimated arrival sometime next spring.

"We've got a two-headed dragon here. We're trying to replace what we lost in the inspections and also better cover our city," McAdams said. Failed inspections, including a metallurgical test, took two frontline trucks -- an engine and one of the city's two 75-foot aerial trucks -- and two reserve engines out of service earlier this year. The city has since relied on its four newest trucks, purchased in 2012, and an aging collection of reserve vehicles, pushed into service in a frontline capacity. The stopgap, however, left the city without an actual reserve to cover for routine vehicle maintenance and emergency repairs.

McAdams said responding to calls for service through deep water during the August 2014 flooding likely decreased the operational life of the vehicles that failed inspections. Metallurgical testing reportedly detected rust damage to the frame rails.

Even so, with a normal life expectancy for fire vehicles ranging from 15 to 20 years, the trucks -- all built in the early to mid-2000s -- were likely nearing the end of their days in service anyway.

In the interim, the city has borrowed trucks from Sterling Heights as needed. McAdams said the department is also exploring options for a longer-term arrangement with a yet-to-be-disclosed municipality.