Ashland gets its ambulance after town comes to rescue

Ashland’s quest for an ambulance began 18 years ago on a foggy night a few miles from town on Black Top Road. It didn’t take long for firefighters to reach the accident, but the wait for an ambulance was troublesome.

“All I know is that it took an extremely long time, between 45 minutes and an hour, for the ambulance to arrive,” firefighter Barrett Glascock said.

Glascock wasn’t at the scene that night, but remembers accounts provided by the late John Thomas, chief of the Southern Boone County Fire District at the time. Thomas’ concern turned into 18 years of trying to shave response times.

For almost two decades, Ashland’s requests for an ambulance were rejected by hospitals in Columbia and Jefferson City, mostly because the number of calls was not great enough to justify the expense.

As the population of the Ashland area boomed, University Hospital saw the request in a new light.

With a $105,000 donation from its service league auxiliary, hospital representatives last year agreed to station an ambulance in Ashland if the community could build a place to house the vehicle and its staff.

Within a year of the offer, the community has planned, pooled donations and finished construction of the John Thomas Memorial Ambulance Base, in honor of its leading advocate who died this year of cancer. The building will have its ceremonial opening at 1 p.m. Sunday.

“It became apparent that it was necessary in order to serve the population adequately,” said Brenda Jensen, the manager of the emergency services department at University Hospital. “It was time for somebody to step up to the plate.”

With the support of the hospital, the community rallied to meet its end of the bargain.

In September 2005 a committee of about 20 people from Ashland got together for the first time to discuss how they would build a home for the ambulance.

The first big fundraiser was in February, when the community’s Optimist Club donated the proceeds of its annual pancake sale — more than $2,000 — to the project.

“The momentum just kept building,” said Glascock, who was the head of the financial branch of the committee.

Close to 250 people and businesses donated labor and materials to help with construction, which is the main reason the building was finished for just under $50,000.

The construction began before there was enough money to finish, said George Zimny, the owner of a construction company and the co-chairman of the construction subcommittee.

“It was a by-the-seat-of-your-pants process,” Zimny said. “We really had no budget. And everything, step by step, just fell into place.”

Terry Pauley, who has lived in the area his entire life, stopped by almost every day to see if help was needed: He picked up trash, organized the construction materials and swept.

His wife, Erma, joined him every other day.

“We couldn’t do much, we’re not craftsman,” Erma Pauley said. “But we could do a broom and a dustpan.”

Their two nephews also helped: One installed the garage doors, and the other took care of the windows.

At the base on Wednesday — which looks like a small apartment — committee member Bill Abrams described the dedication demonstrated by the Pauleys and others.

“It was a genuine community effort,” he said. “Nobody asked them (the Pauleys) to come out. They just saw something that needed to be done.”

The ambulance began servicing the community part time on Oct. 3 and went to 24-hour service on Oct. 8, said Jay Simons, assistant manager of emergency services with MU Health Care. Though the base is in Ashland, the ambulance will serve all of southern Boone County.

Until the new service began, the time for an ambulance response to Ashland was about 20 to 25 minutes, said Ashland Healthcare administrator Beth Bowles, who calls for an ambulance about a dozen times a month. Now the ambulance base can be seen from the facility’s front porch.

“It’s a definite asset to the patients,” Bowles said.

Others echoed the benefit of faster response times.

“I’ve never had a need for it, but I’m glad it’s here in case I do,” said Pat Edwards, who along with others at the Senior Center donated desserts to one of the fundraisers.

City Administrator Ken Eftink called the ambulance a quality of life issue that makes Ashland “a better place to live. People take it for granted — until they need it.”