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 web posted September 5, 2007 EDGEFIELD – Edgefield County EMS Director Jewel Plaxco presented a proposal to the county council Tuesday night that would remove the EMS substation at the Merriwether Fire Department and relocate it to Highway 25 near the end of the four-lane. Director Plaxco said that due to having only two full time ambulances the Merriwether ambulance constantly had to go on “stand-by” at the County Line Fire Department because the Edgefield based ambulance would be on call. The cost of moving the substation is estimated at $23,000 for the modular structure, plus a covered area for the ambulance, office and supplies. A grant request has been submitted to help defray the cost of moving the substation. Merriwether Councilman Joel Hudson said he did not think moving the Merriwether substation was advisable due the dense population in the fastest growing part of the county. EMS Director Plaxco said that the move was necessary to help reduce response times. The ideal response is within seven to ten minutes, however, many calls are “third and forth out” (meaning calling in off duty EMTs to respond to calls). Plaxco illustrated the understaffing by stating Aiken County has responded to calls in Edgefield at least four times recently as mutual aid because no county unit was available. When asked what the best solution would be Director Plaxco said adding another substation would alleviate a great deal of the problem. The cost to staff the third substation was stated to be around $330,000 a year, providing for eight additional EMTs. The county council took the proposal in as information. EMA Director Mike Casey also addressed the county council in regards to the upkeep of the E911 system and the transmission towers used for emergency operations. The county currently operates from two towers, one in Merriwether and a second near Edgefield. During the recent storms the south tower went down due to the back-up generator not coming online during a power outage due to a dead battery on the generator. Mr. Casey said power was restored and after inspecting the site he found several problems that needed to be addressed including a regular scheduled maintenance for the generators and equipment. Due to no preventive maintenance the cost of repairs to bring both sites up to standard would cost around $700. Other issues Mr. Casey brought forward were no fencing around the support wires to the towers that could allow a vehicle to strike the wires and bring down a tower, no fencing around the structures for the equipment, and no ventilation of the structures housing the equipment. The county council approved Mr. Casey seeking the needed repairs and to present a proposal on the cost of a maintenance program at next months meeting. For all
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