Rural ambulance service to build new facility with $300,000 federal grant
GOWRIE, Iowa — Federal funding will help expand emergency medical services in a rural community in Webster County.
The Southwest Webster Ambulance Service in Gowrie is in desperate need of an upgrade. EMT Terry Towne said they outgrew the building 15 years ago.
'When I started 30 years ago, all of our supplies were in the bay with the ambulance, but now very little of them are because there's no room,' Towne said.
To save space, they started storing equipment inside their meeting room instead. The bay now only stores their two ambulances.
One is nine-years-old and the other is 16-years-old. There's a cabinet inside the bay that opens directly onto one of the vehicles. According to Towne, newer ambulances are getting larger and wider, so while they're tight for space now, it may be worse in the future.
However, federal funding will now help them create a new building. Senator Chuck Grassley announced $2.3 million in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Grant Program. The money was awarded to five communities, and Gowrie was one of them.
'Many Iowans call rural communities home, and they deserve our support and investment. These federal dollars will upgrade critical infrastructure, promote economic development, and boost health and safety initiatives throughout rural Iowa,' said Grassley.
None of this would've been possible without the help of one local Gowrie business. Marcie Boerner is the CEO and General Manager for the Webster-Calhoun Cooperative Telephone Association. She applied for the grant on behalf of the Southwest Webster Ambulance Service.
Webster-Calhoun has a revolving loan fund, which means they're able to make 0% loans to businesses and organizations within their community to support economic growth.
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She found out earlier this year they were awarded $300,000 for the project. The ambulance service will provide a 20% match.
'It's actually a program that's a win-win for the both of us. So, its adding $360,000 to our revolving loan fund but as they pay it back to us, we're able to continue to reloan it to other businesses and organizations throughout our service area,' said Boerner.
The partnership with the medical services crew was an easy decision for Boerner.
'There's three [hospitals] but they're 30 minutes away, and so it's really important and really fortunate as a citizen and resident in Gowrie that we have the Southwest Webster Ambulance crew here in town,' she said.
Towne describes this loan as a dream come true.
'It's still very emotional when I think about it, because we've been trying to work on an ambulance but fundraisers only go so far and the cost of the buildings keep going up, even more than our fundraising has been going up. So, this is not anything we could've reached without this loan that we're getting from them,' she said.
The new building will be constructed in between the current facility and the town's fire department. The City of Gowrie already voted to buy the current facility to use it as a police station. The new facility is projected to be completed by the fall.
Towne also said they will use part of the grant to employ a paramedic. The Southwest Webster Ambulance is ran by volunteers. Employing a paramedic will ensure the station has someone available to better assist residents around the clock.
Currently, the police and fire departments are funded by property tax, but EMT is not. As a result, Webster County is also holding a special election on March 4th to change this. If approved, the county will dedicate a tax of 75-cents per $1,000 of taxable property. They expect this to raise around $200,000 annually for the ambulance service.
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