CHAPPELL HILL CHAMBER MAKES DONATION TOWARDS EMS STATION

  

John Wick with the Chappell Hill Chamber of Commerce presented the Washington County Commissioners this morning (Tuesday) with a donation in support of the EMS station located in Chappell Hill.  Wick thanked the commissioners and the Washington County EMS on behalf of the people who have been saved by the quick response from the Chappell Hill sub-station.   EMS now has a substation located at the old fire station in downtown Chappell Hill.  They will also soon be opening the new sub-station building in Burton and will be staging a crew and vehicle at the Washington Volunteer Fire Department building that is under construction.  EMS Director Kevin Deramus said they have responded to 408 calls so far out of the Chappell Hill sub-station and the average response is just under 5 minutes.  That cuts at least 10 minutes off the response time if the unit had to come out of Brenham.

All of the county commissioners had words of praise for the EMS.  Commissioner Kirk Hanath said that if the county had just stayed with the industry standard, all the EMS units would be dispatched out of a single station in Brenham.  He praised EMS for thinking outside the box and working to locate units at several sub-stations throughout the county.

In other action, commissioners approved a budget amendment for the repair of the emergency generator located at the Cannery Kitchen.  That facility is set up to feed emergency responders during disaster situations and has a large generator to supply power to the building.  County Treasure Peggy Kramer said that the money was in the budget for the repair, it just need to be moved into the account.