“When the medical community as a group asked us for something concerning the health of the community, we need to take a serious look at it,“ said County Council Chairman Henry Summer.

With that attitude, and after years of requests, the timing was on EMS's side and County Council added a third nighttime EMS crew to next fiscal year's budget.

Currently, two EMS crews work the entire county from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. every night. On an average night, both of the EMS units are responding to calls at the same time for two hours of the shift. When no EMS units are available to respond to calls, volunteer rescue squads pick up the slack.

The county is adding the additional service without raising taxes. Council had planned to purchase two new ambulances at a cost of $230,000 and take out a loan for two more with the yearly cost of $57,219. The plan was also to purchase four “12-lead“ EKG monitors costing $88,000. In order to free up cash to pay the $210,000 in salaries for the five new positions, the county will take loans for all the ambulances and the EKG monitors.

The new crew will be “roving,“ or put where it is needed at the decision of the county's Emergency Services Board, which is made up of local emergency officials from fire, rescue squads, law enforcement and EMS. In previous discussions, the new crew was to be based at Fairview's Lake Murray Public Safety Complex.

Council has discussed the request to add the new crew for several years, but it has always been rejected.

Dr. Alan Passinger presented the resolution signed by 25 county physicians to council Wednesday night.

“The ambulance can be utilized as a ‘roving' unit and positioned throughout the county as demands dictate to best meet the needs of Newberry County residents with rapid and timely response. Given the current and growing EMS call volume, (over 5,400 calls last year), it is nearly impossible to effectively cover the large geographic region of Newberry County with timely response with only two ambulances