Dublin EMS crew members are exceptionally happy this week as they have officially gotten to move into their brand new home.
The 2,200 square foot building located behind the police department may not seem like a huge footprint but considering they moved from an old FEMA trailer, the space to spread out is welcome. The construction on the building started in February 2023.
The building features a day room where crews can hang out between emergency calls, a large kitchen where meals can be cooked together and a kitchen table to share familystyle meals. The kitchen is equipped with three refrigerators and three pantries – one for each shift, just like a typical fire/EMS station would be.
Since Dublin EMS crews spend 48 hours on a shift, the ability to spread out and have a bit of privacy was vastly needed, EMS Director John Tadlock said.
Four small bedrooms with a desk, TV, bed and cabinets for each shift are included in the new building.
“The crews couldn’t even store their gear here, the previous building was so small,” he said. “They would have to carry their belongings back and forth. Now they can wear street clothes and change into their uniforms here.”
If the need ever arose for Dublin to staff two ambulances at once, the new building has enough space to allow the expansion.
EMS crews will also now have the ability to wash their clothes at the station in a new laundry room equipped with a washer and dryer instead of having to take their clothes home or have them dry cleaned.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes is the professionally installed alert system that activates all of the lights in the building and a speaker system alerting the crews when a call has come in.
“Before the crews had to carry a radio with them at all times,” Tadlock explained. “They would even have to sit it in the bathroom when they took a shower.”
The new building is also equipped with a backup generator in case of power outages from severe weather or ice storms.
“It really has all of the conveniences that a normal station would have,” Tadlock said. “It’s a basic building but a nice one.”
The building came in under the budgeted amount of $760,000.
There is an open house tentatively scheduled for mid-October with firm a date to be announced later.