Orange County NC Website
5. Public Hearings-NONE <br /> 6. Regular Agenda <br /> a. Proposal to Strategically Relocate EMS Units, Including Immediate <br /> Implementation of Revere Road Facility (Former Animal Services Building) <br /> The Board considered approving the ongoing plan to strategically relocate Emergency <br /> Medical Services (EMS) stations and enhance response time as call loads determine need and <br /> resources provide. <br /> Emergency Services Director Frank Montes de Oca said that he brought forth to the <br /> Board of County Commissioners earlier this year a report on the EMS system in the County. <br /> One of the factors was to move the EMS stations into the communities that are served. Prior <br /> to that, the County had continued to centralize down to one area, which caused some <br /> extended response times. The response time target was 12 minutes countywide, and it had <br /> extended to 17 minutes. One of the options available is to recycle and re-task the old Animal <br /> Services building on Revere Road with an expenditure of $50,000 to turn this building into an <br /> EMS station. The benefit would be to decrease response time in the northern end of the <br /> County and it would also improve the response times in the north end of Hillsborough and <br /> allow an east to west response time on US 70 to the Efland area and the Eno area. The <br /> money has been allocated by the Board's actions last budget year in the Emergency Services <br /> Capital Investment Plan. <br /> Commissioner Gordon asked Frank Montes de Oca to speak to the geographic <br /> distribution of the stations and how that relates to the distribution of the county's population. <br /> Frank Montes de Oca said that there are two stations in the Carrboro area, and they will be <br /> relocating one of those. <br /> Commissioner Gordon said that she is concerned about the staff's ability to cover <br /> Chapel Hill and Carrboro and how to handle this load since the majority of the population lives <br /> in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area and the map in the agenda packet shows that many of the <br /> calls are from this area. Frank Montes de Oca said that one of the two stations would be <br /> moved toward the east side of Chapel Hill. <br /> Frank Montes de Oca said that there are enough resources to staff six units at one <br /> time. There would be two units in the Carrboro area, one at the New Hope station, one on <br /> Revere Road, and one in Efland. <br /> Commissioner Gordon said that she wants to know more about the distribution of <br /> resources. She said that she was amazed at how many people have called and there was no <br /> ambulance available (235 times last year). What is the balance between distributing the <br /> stations geographically around the county and yet having resources to answer calls in the <br /> more densely populated areas. <br /> Frank Montes de Oca reiterated where the stations would be located. He will continue <br /> to look at the statistics and see how the response times can be decreased. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs asked about the discussions about using the Kirby property and <br /> Frank Montes de Oca was not familiar with that discussion. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs said that the County Commissioners were approached and they <br /> discussed using a property that was purchased on Schley and Mincey Roads to be used as <br /> either a fire station or something. He asked Frank Montes de Oca to check into this for a <br /> status. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs said that as new vehicles are brought on line, he would like to <br /> talk about fuel efficient vehicles. <br />