On time and on budget. That's how Windsor-Essex EMS Chief Bruce Krauter is describing the new base being built at Dougall Ave. and the E.C. Row Expressway.
He says the weather has cooperated and the $2.5-million project is moving along nicely. The new facility will be much larger with three ambulance bays, a fuel depot and improved staff quarters and storage.
Krauter says getting the station up and running is going to be a game changer.
"Dougall base is a strategic location. Being at Dougall and E.C. Row it's basically in the centre of urban city area," says Krauter. "Staffing an ambulance and a quick first response unit out of that it can go anywhere. Right now, and even previously with the old base, it just wasn't suited for our type of response."
The new Windsor-Essex EMS base at Dougall Ave and the E.C. Row should be ready by September (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
He says the current base just wasn't cutting anymore.
"The vehicles were a lot smaller then. Our vehicles are bigger and call volume wasn't the same. So we've just outgrown it. And supplies, the supply room at the old station was a closet, where as now the supply room at the new station is a full-size room with multiple carts."
Krauter adds, the current base was built in the 1980's and is not up to modern day standards. The goal is to have the new station fully operational by September.