Area Ambulance building new facility in southwest Cedar Rapids

Area Ambulance Service plans to construct a new $2 million facility that will consolidate its three buildings into one for improved efficiencies.

Executive Director Keith Rippy said the 20,000-square-foot building will be located in an industrial neighborhood at 2730 12

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St. SW – currently a vacant, 3-acre lot – that was purchased by Area Ambulance in 2007.

“This will centralize all of our operations under one roof,” Rippy said. “We can get our folks on the street a lot quicker. The whole workflow will be more efficient.”

Area Ambulance, which had been located at Mercy Medical Center, moved its dispatch center and administrative office to 1030 Mount Vernon Rd. SE when Mercy temporarily closed during the Floods of 2008.

Rippy said paramedics and emergency medical technicians clock in at that office, then go to a garage down the street to pick up an ambulance before returning to the office for their equipment. A mechanics garage is at a third site nearby, where the vehicles are washed.

Area Ambulance employs about 60 workers, including dispatchers, EMTs, paramedics, administrative staff and mechanics.

Ambulances will continue to be staged at sites throughout the community, where demand is greatest to ensure the best response times, Rippy said.

More than 14,000 calls for service and 12,000 transports were completed in 2010.

The building plan was approved last month by the service's Board of Directors, which includes representatives from Marion, Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Mercy and St. Luke's Hospital.

Area Ambulance became a not-for-profit organization in 2006 and does not receive public funding.

The land and building will be paid for from cash reserves set aside by the Board of Directors since 2007.

Point Builders of Cedar Rapids will handle design and construction of the building.

Construction will begin this fall, with completion in the fall of 2012.

Area Ambulance provides service to a 240-square-mile area in Linn and portions of Benton, Johnson and Iowa counties and to residents of Independence and surrounding Buchanan County.