Posted 11/20/23

The existing Giles County ambulance facility is too small and outdated to renovate for continued service. The location is less than ideal, our trucks barely fit in their bays, and the berthing areas poorly accommodate the mix of men and women who make up today’s workforce.

We’ve known about these problems for years, with the Commission wrangling for 13+ years on how/when/why/where to build a new facility.

A little over a year ago Giles County attacked the problem again. We focused on identifying a site and the Commission reached consensus to use existing county property vice purchasing new land.

That landed us with two possibilities…1) The existing GC Fire & Rescue site, adjacent to the Sheriff’s Department, and 2) The Agri-Park, adjacent to the existing Solid Waste facility.

There are other county-owned properties but they were ruled out for not meeting basic operational criteria.

Giles County hired an engineering firm to conduct a preliminary site survey to really drill down into those pros and cons and provide a comprehensive report on their findings.

And now the Commission is ready to be briefed on that report, to be held at 9am, December 5th, at the OEM building (3750 Columbia Hwy). The public is welcome to attend the briefing.

The Building Committee will hopefully hold a vote at the end of the briefing, prioritizing the two available options with a recommendation going forward to the full Commission.