Expanded services to aid southern residents
GARLAND — The southern end of the county can expect some relief for emergency services, as an ambulance is supposed to be stationed in the area at the first of the year.
At the Town of Garland’s recent meeting, Rick Sauer, Sampson County’s Emergency Management Services director, brought before the board an update about emergency management services in the southern part of the county.
Sauer said that prior to this new ambulance coming to this area, there is often only one ambulance in the southern areas like Harrells, Garland and Taylors Bridge. Sauer has been the director now for about four months, he said, and analyzing all of this has been one of the tasks at the forefront since he started.
“Decisions are based on what is going on in the county,” said Sauer. “I’m here to share some of the things we are doing.”
Sampson County Commissioner Lethia Lee explained the rationale behind the need for EMS services in this area, citing a personal experience where it took over 45 minutes for help to arrive for her husband through an ambulance.
“We have been putting in our data, and seeing where our call volume was,” Sauer explained.
Having that information allowed them to examine their response times as well as their wait times at the hospital, and other factors, like how COVID has impacted.
“As a result I made a presentation to the county commissioners and they allowed us to hire more staff,” said Sauer.
“Currently we have six ambulances, and we will have a seventh ambulance on as soon as we can hire more staff,” he said.
Nationwide there is a shortage of paramedics, so hiring has become more difficult.
Sauer said that the next step was figuring out where they were going to stage, or assign, that new team.
“We were looking at districts around the county, and we saw that down south of Hwy. 24 that there was basically only one ambulance in the southern part of the county, which was very rural.”
He said that due to the call volume they realized that they needed another ambulance down there.
That need was brought before the county commissioners, and in early October, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners approved the hiring of six paramedics. With that the board acknowledged the need for a new ambulance as of July of next year.
This request was not approved in the budget talks in June, even in light of the requests from local emergency officials.
“Essentially we would have an ambulance in Harrells… and in Garland,” he explained.
At the October meeting it was officially requested to add the six paramedics, with a cost of $448,000 annually, by January of 2022. With this also came the possibility of two part-time fire inspectors, with the cost being absorbed by inspection fees.
The discussion about these issues first came up around budget time, with local chiefs coming before the board in a plea for help. They didn’t make the cut, but were ultimately granted four months later.
Taylors Bridge Fire Chief Alan Williams spoke to the matter during the Sampson County Board of Commissioners’ regular June 2021 meeting, a situation he described as dire.
“Right now, there’s only six advanced life support units in this county — only six. From (N.C.) Highway 24 north, there’s five — two in Clinton, three staged in the northern end of the county; (from N.C.) 24 south, there’s only one,” said Williams.
If that unit gets dispatched to a call, the southern end is essentially vulnerable, a situation that was seen in January this year. All the Sampson County EMS units were out with other calls, leaving three calls pending without anyone to respond.
In addition to these concerns, volunteerism in emergency services has dropped significantly. Fire stations as well as EMS is seeing a serious decline in incoming volunteers.
Reach Emily M. Williams at 910-590-9488. Follow her on Twitter at @NCNewsWriter. Follow us on Twitter at @SampsonInd and like us on Facebook.