Center Point ambulance service breaks ground on new station

Everybody could use a bit more rest after a hard day’s work. That’s especially true for staff and volunteers at Center Point Regional Ambulance Service.

“You never know what you're getting into when you get into that truck and turn those lights on,” said Savannah Dickerson, a volunteer with the service. “The adrenaline levels are high, the stress levels are high.”

On Thursday, Center Point Regional Ambulance Service held a groundbreaking ceremony with general contractor Allan Development Company to celebrate the development of a new station. It will replace the current one on 521 Franklin St. in Center Point and will feature more space for storage and relaxation.

Don Donley, president of the ambulance service, said they’d been working on getting an upgrade for around three years. The organization is a nonprofit and gets its funding from donations and reimbursements from insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid for delivering patients to the hospital.

“We are saving as much as we can, and then having to finance,” Donley said. “It’s set a budget and stick to it as much as we can, and then finance the rest.”

Donley said they expect to move into the new station at the end of February 2026. It will have additional space for meetings and training, as well as four upgraded ambulance bays. Dickerson said the extra space is needed — the new station will have a designated area for EMTs to shower and clean their clothes after a call. In the current station, those facilities are spread out and make cleanup more complicated.

The ambulance service responds to calls in Benton, Buchanan and northern Linn counties. Donley said the service responded to about 780 calls in 2024 and has responded to 720 so far in 2025. The situations workers respond to range from delivering babies to shootings.

“To have a nice place to come relax, de-stress, and then be able to go back and you're not overly stressed for the next call, is definitely gonna be helpful,” said Dickerson.

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