A Year After Opening, Station No. 3 Sees Plenty Of Activity
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Almost a year since the opening of the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Station No. 3, the numbers seem to support the notion it was needed.
The station, designed by MartinRiley Architects, and constructed by Mosaic Building Solutions, both of Fort Wayne, is at 620 W. CR 200S, Warsaw.
Fire Chief Mike Wilson told the WWFT Board Tuesday the territory had 216 responses in April. Of those, district 1 responded to 100 of them, district 2 responded to 82 and district 3 responded to 34. A majority of the calls – 70.37% – are medical calls.
Lutheran EMS provided a report on its Wayne Township response data to the board. Wilson said it not only shows “Kosciusko Community Hospital’s but everywhere they dispatch patients out of.” The report covers the first four months of this year.
Under call types, it shows Lutheran EMS responded to 1,112 9-1-1 calls in the first four months, with 282 in April alone. Wilson said the WWFT responded to 152 in April, with an assist on one.
“This reflects that we don’t go to every 911 call that they go on. Doctor’s office, nursing homes, Grace Village, that type of facility, we’re not dispatched,” he said.
From time of dispatch to time at location, Wilson said Lutheran EMS averages about 5 minutes.
Lutheran has only two stations here – an east station out by fire station No. 2 and a west station, which is at fire station No. 3. In total, Lutheran EMS ran 450 calls in Wayne Township out of its east station and 458 out of its west station so far this year, Wilson said.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “There’s a lot of data here, but the interest I had was, how effective is that ambulance placement down at station 3? It’s servicing the township, obviously, very well. It’s well positioned – there’s an equal number of runs from there as there is from” the other station.
Wilson agreed, saying, “You talk with the medics working there, when they’re there and they get dispatched, it’s advantageous to them being at that location instead of being up north of town. Lutheran going to station 3 was very good.”
Thallemer said it was very helpful to see the report. “When we built the station and we created that extra bay for them, I felt it was critical from a response time and just the fact there’s a facility down there to service the township, and we need to have EMS down there. And this is bearing that out as far as I’m concerned.”
Wilson said when station 3 was being designed, there were conversations about how it would work and how Lutheran EMS and WWFT would have a joint working relationship.
“We’re into this almost a year ... and already it’s been a plus for the community. There’s been life-saving events that have happened very close to that station that would have been delayed if the ambulance was not there,” Wilson said.
Later in the meeting, Wilson gave an update to the board on uncompleted work on fire station 3.
At the May 6 meeting, the board discussed a demand letter made on Mosaic in reference to some of the work that was not completed.
On July 17, 2018, Rob Barker and MartinRiley created a “punch list” – work not conforming to contract specifications that the contractor must complete before the final payment. The fire department took occupancy on Sept. 12, 2018. As of the May meeting, Mosaic had made very little progress toward completion of the punch list.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Wilson said, “MartinRiley and Mosaic met with us last week. They went back through the punch list. I do know that progress is moving.”
He said they had a contractor there preparing stone work on the building over the last couple of days. They’ve looked at some drainage issues around the property, and sent a contractor in to look at replacing the window sills and kitchen counter.
“They’ve had FloTech in looking at the water situation inside, the sprinkler system and drainage in the bathroom. The tile people have made contact with us, so there is a little bit of significant improvement with them working with us through MartinRiley,” Wilson said.
The board also approved the hiring of a replacement firefighter, Kyle Martin. The Warsaw Board of Works and Public Safety also will have to approve his hire at its meeting Friday.
Wilson said Martin, who comes from the Silver Lake Fire Department, has met all the requirements of a new hire and has been through all the physicals. He will go through two weeks of training and his first official duty day will be July 1.
