May 22, 2008

The Ava Area Ambulance District threw open the doors to its new ambulance facility at 1412 NW 9th St. in Ava last Saturday, and welcomed the public in for tours and a free meal. Ambulance crew members cooked hamburgers and hotdogs provided by CoxHealth, and staff and board members conducted tours of the spacious new facility that houses ambulances and crew mem¬bers serving the area. Ambulance service is provided in the Ava area by CoxHealth through a contract agreement with the ambulance district. Two full-service crews are on call 24 hours a day. The ambulance service was operated from a building on High¬way 14, just west of Highway 5, for a number of years. However, that building became inadequate when it was necessary to add a second, 24-hour unit to meet the growing demand for ambulance service in the area. After considering the options of enlarging the existing building or purchasing land and building an all-new facility, the district's six-member board determined the latter to be the most feasible. Property was purchased from the Ava Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) about a year ago, and construction began in the late summer. The building was completed just after the first of the year, and the crew moved into the new facility on a cold and blustery day at the end of January. The open house on Saturday was held in conjunction with National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week which is May 18-24. The facility features living quarters with four individual bedrooms, a living room and kitchen; as well as an office area, a meeting/training room, and a triage area for treating walk-in contacts. The garage area has four ambulance bays, including a wash bay for washing the ambulances inside. The building is also designed with ample storage space, and is equipped with a fully-automatic generator that powered the building for several hours during the winter ice storm just a few weeks after the building was occupied, and again three weeks ago when a tornado took out electrical service in Ava. The facility was designed by Bates & Associates Architects, of Springfield, and was built by general contractor Harold Gray of Missouri Supermarket Builders (MSB) Inc., Ozark. Members of the board of direc¬tors are Daryel Armour, Jim Brown, Lowell D. Cutbirth, Richard Lansdown, Keith Moore and Jim Stafford, with Cindy Heath serving as the board's secre¬tary/treasurer. The ambulance district was formed in 1972 to serve the western half of Douglas County, and was funded by a property tax until August 2005 when voters approved a ½-cent sales tax to fund the operation. The additional funding provided by the sales tax made it possible for the district to add a second fulltime crew to serve the community. The property on West Highway 14 at Airport Road was recently sold to Ozark Mountains Real Estate Company which plans to locate offices at that location.