Sheldon, Iowa — When the Sheldon City Council met this past Wednesday they approved the purchase of a new ambulance for the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team. For the past several years SCAT has operated with a two-ambulance fleet, but the acquisition of the new unit will bring SCAT to a total of three ambulances.
Sheldon City Manager Sam Kooiker tells us why they’re expanding SCAT’s fleet.
The new ambulance will come with a purchase price of $198,782, and Kooiker says he was asked why the City didn’t receive any grants for a portion of that purchase price.
Having a third SCAT ambulance will mean that, even when both SCAT 1 and SCAT 2 are out of the city on transfers, there will still be an ambulance available in town. And SCAT Director Kevin Miller told the council that the ambulance team has a sufficient number of volunteers to staff the third ambulance.
One of the things still to be decided is how to utilize garage space to store the third SCAT unit. The Ambulance Garage, which is located in the Emergency Services Building just southeast of the Community Services Center, contains three vehicle bays. Those three bays now house Scat 1, SCAT 2 and the Sheldon Emergency Management Agency’s vehicle. The addition of a third SCAT ambulance will mean the eviction of the EMA unit to make the bay available for the new ambulance. Sheldon City Councilman, and EMA team member Wayne Barahona, tells KIWA that the City is currently weighing their options on a storage location for the EMA unit.
Kooiker says the new ambulance is scheduled to arrive sometime next year.
