Riley County EMS presented four scenarios to county commissioners Monday to cut down ambulance response time in the northern parts of the county.
EMS Director David Adams talked about one scenario that would move one ambulance from Station 1 in Manhattan to the City of Riley.
“The response time to Riley will be 1-2 minutes and for Randolph it will be 15 minutes,” Adams said, “Leonardville, the time will be 8. In case the ambulance needs to be called back to Manhattan for call volume, it would be 18 minutes.”
Adams said if they move the ambulance to Riley, Station 1 in Manhattan will have a higher call volume. He said they would have to redistrict Station 1 and send some of the call areas to other stations to reduce call volume.
Another scenario presented would relocate units from the station by Manhattan Regional Airport to Riley. Adams said Stations 1 and 2 would have increased call volumes. He also said the average response time to Ogden, which averages 209 calls, will increase by seven minutes. While this scenario would solve the problem in the northern part of the county, it would slightly increase volume in the southern half of the county.
A third scenario would reduce time by moving ambulances to the county shop.
“The county shop is out on a highway and an ambulance could get back to Manhattan quicker than one in the city trying to get through city traffic,” he said. “We could reduce the call volume at Station 1 by 902 calls and would be more responsive than back in Manhattan.”
Finally, a fourth scenario would add a new crew of six people to the fleet and be housed in the City of Riley. Adams said for housing they looked at two options; expanding and renovating the firehouse in Riley or building a new station or administrative building in the city shops.
