New EMS station near Lewes helps paramedics battle beach traffic

Sussex County paramedics have a new station near Lewes to call home.

For Robert Stuart, director of Sussex County EMS, the new station gives paramedics a leg up on the traffic that the area deals with in the summer. 

"I think the single biggest thing were are going to enjoy coming out of this station is to be able to respond better for calls to this area," Stuart said. "We should be able to respond better to calls in this area. Route 1 has become a virtual parking lot on occasion, especially during the summer months, and it became very difficult getting out of our previous station because of traffic."

Located less than a mile from the previous EMS station, the new Medic 104 station opened in May, but the official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held July 12.

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Sussex County has nine EMS stations covering the entire 936 square miles of the county, or one for every 104 square miles. In 2016, medics from the old station responded to more than 2,600 calls with an average response time of just over eight minutes.

Glenn Marshall, a Sussex County paramedic and the public information officer for Sussex County Emergency Medical Services, said the area the new station serves is the single busiest part of the county as far as they are concerned, covering Angola, Dewey Beach, Harbeson, Lewes, Milton and Rehoboth Beach.

"What it will allow us to do will let us respond in a quicker, safer manner to the different areas," he said. "When you look at this, you think 'how does moving to the other side of Coastal Highway work better?' The reality is we came in knowing Route 1 can get congested with traffic.

"And what this allows us to do is access Route 1 better, but it also allows us to get to Route 9 or Route 24. We can go west much easier, it really frees us up without getting into heavy traffic."

Work began on the new $1.4 million, 5,000-square-foot EMS station in August 2015, said Bobby Schoonover, the EMS logistics coordinator for Sussex County. Because of its close proximity to Beebe Hospital, the station also serves as the main training station for the county, with a new student or hire training with a medic nearly daily.

The station was designed to fit in with the surrounding neighborhood, he added.

"We wanted it to fit in with the surrounding community," he said. "That was priority No. 1."

Marshall said all new stations are designed to look like homes in the community.

That is important because they want to make people feel like they are part of the community, "which we are," Marshall said.

The station features a meeting room, training room, offices and an expanded office for the supervisor, who does his work out of the station, an exercise room, and a kitchen and mess area.

But the thing they are most excited about is the drive through bays, Stuart said.

"It's probably the biggest single feature we have," he said.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Sussex County Council members Michael Vincent, I.G. Burton and Rob Arlett.

Doing things such as opening the new EMS station is what politicians are supposed to do, Arlett said.

"This was what all elected officials are supposed to do, focus on public safety," he said. "This is our No. 1 priority right here."

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