Valle Ambulance District officials are on the lookout to buy property where a new House 3 can be built.
District officials also recently ordered a new ambulance and dash cameras and agreed to pay for security upgrades.
After months of consulting with engineering and architectural firms, district officials decided to replace rather than remodel House 3, now located on a small parcel of land at 5379 Hwy. B near the Raintree subdivision.
Built in 2002, the station consists of a manufactured home and a detached garage.
“The property is small. It’s hilly, and we just don’t have a lot of options,” said Jesse Barton, chief of Valle Ambulance, which covers areas in southwestern Jefferson County, including De Soto, Hillsboro, Victoria, Hematite and Goldman. “The only thing that’s been decided so far is that it’s not feasible to remodel. So we’re looking for a property, probably about 2 to 3 acres, somewhere west of Hwy. 21 in the Hillsboro area. Something with room enough to get a well and a septic system, and a building about 4,000 square feet, similar to House 2.”
In addition to the cost to buy new property, preliminary estimates to build a new House 3 came in at about $5.5 million, Barton said.
“That is a lot higher than we anticipated, more than double,” he said. “We just didn’t anticipate that costs had gone up so much.”
Barton said some funds for the project already have been allocated.
“We’re not in a big hurry,” he said. “Some of the money we have set aside for it is drawing pretty good interest, so there’s no urgency. It’s just part of our strategic planning.”
While searching for property, Barton said, the district is asking FGM Architects of St. Louis to come up with a scaled-down version of the plan for the new house that better fits the current budget and avoids any increase in taxes.
“With the cost of goods and services, the way the economy is, we just can’t ask the taxpayers for more right now,” Barton said. “We feel like it’s more important to prioritize the ambulances and the people versus the buildings.”
The district’s House 1 is at 12363 Hwy. 21 just north of De Soto, and House 2 is at 1540 Hillcrest Drive near Walther Park.
House 2 just got a new roof.
“That came in on budget and ahead of schedule,” Barton said. “Missouri Premium Roofing did it and the cost was $13,806. The building was remodeled in 2012; it’s structurally sound and fits our needs, so I don’t foresee any changes.”
House 1, which serves as the district’s headquarters, was built in 1979 and expanded and remodeled in 2012.
“We have a lot invested here and it works well for us,” Barton said.
New ambulances on the way
The board also has agreed to pay $354,727 to American Response Vehicle for a new ambulance.
“Call volume wise and with our aging fleet, it was time to add an eighth ambulance,” Barton said.
He said the district expects to take delivery of the new ambulance sometime in late 2025 or early 2026.
He said it can take approximately two years to build an ambulance after it’s ordered.
”Some of that is due to the chassis shortage by different manufacturers; some is the ambulance manufacturers,” he said. “We need to get on the books and lock in the cost.”
In the meantime, the district continues to upgrade its existing fleet of ambulances.
A May delivery is expected for an ambulance that was sent to a North Carolina firm for “remount.”
“That’s when they take the box off the back of the truck and put it onto a new chassis,” Barton explained. “Then they spiff it up – fix things, replace broken things, fix scratches and dents. It cost $197,235.45, which is significantly cheaper than a new ambulance.
“Once we take possession and put it into service, another will be sent off. We can’t have more than one out of service at a time. That one should be back early in 2025.”
Across the industry, there has been a backlog of chassis orders over the last few years.
“This will put us back to our original fleet replacement schedule,” Barton said. “We’ve been off since COVID; this should get us back to our budgeted plan to do one a year.”
Surfsight cameras like the one on the left will be installed in 11 Valle Ambulance vehicles, alongside the GeoTab tracking devices (at right) already in place.
Dash cameras
The Valle Ambulance Board of Directors voted 5-0 March 27 to purchase dashboard cameras for the district’s ambulance fleet and service vehicles. Steve Bergner was absent from the meeting.
“We’ve been looking at additional ways to protect our crews and our staff,” Barton said. “Incidents have happened where video from a dash cam would have clarified the situation, could prove either something did or didn’t happen.”
The board agreed to pay $6,611 to Geo Tab, a vehicle-tracking software company the district already uses, for the cameras to be installed in the vehicles. The company submitted the only bid for the project.
District staff will install the Surfsight cameras, which will cost $3,575; the remainder of the cost is for the annual service fee.
The cameras will be installed on all seven Valle ambulances and four staff vehicles.
“They’re forward facing and rear facing, so it records the view out the windshield plus the driver,” Barton said. “All have audio capability, but we’re only doing that on my truck.”
Each camera turns on when the key is turned in the vehicle ignition and then records data on its internal software.
“The information is stored on the SD card that is security-coded,” Barton explained. “It will be reviewable, but we can’t release it or make it public due to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules.”
Barton said the cameras will provide important feedback to the driver and the district.
“If there is any kind of incident, we want to be able to understand what happened,” he said. “Accidents is the main one, but we have had a few incidents where we’ve had damage to a vehicle while it was at a service provider or even out on a call.
“The goal is to help protect the district, our employees and the public.”
The cameras should be installed within the next couple of months, Barton said.
Security updates
The Valle board also voted 5-0 on March 27 to pay $19,453 to FeatherShark to upgrade the district’s phone systems and network security at all of its facilities. That includes hardware, wiring and labor for installation and programming at the district’s three stations, as well as its maintenance facility.
“All the components will be transferable to a new facility,” Barton said. “So we won’t lose anything if we build a new House 3. The service costs $175 a month to maintain, which is $100 cheaper than the current provider.”