New EMS hall rises near new hospital

The new Bedford County Emergency Medical Services station and headquarters rises in the background on land in Airport Industrial Park. From left are BCEMS Director Chad Graham; Derrick Taylor and Tom Allard of Wal-Mart Distribution Center, which donated the land for the facility; and BCEMS Assistant Director Michael Clements. (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Order this photo]

The station, built on land donated by Wal-Mart Distribution Center, will become the new headquarters and administrative offices of BCEMS, a short distance away from the new Heritage Medical Center which opens this summer. BCEMS's existing headquarters on Union Street will remain open as an ambulance station.

Preston Bros. Construction of Woodbury is the contractor for the new facility, and Davis Stokes Collaborative is the architect.

The contractors have until the end of August to complete the building, according to BCEMS Director Chad Graham.

The new Airport Industrial Park station and another new station about to open near Cascade School, are expected to reduce response times in the northern half of the county. In cardiac emergencies, a few minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

Coupled with the stations in Unionville and on Madison Street, BCEMS will have five separate locations from which to respond. The idea behind the new stations is to have five crews on duty around the clock, although the county's budget situation may have an impact on those plans.

The site on which the Airport station sits, between Airport Industrial Park Road and Harts Chapel Road, had been controlled by Wal-Mart DC but was cut off from the rest of the Wal-Mart site by a nearby water tower, limiting its potential usefulness to Wal-Mart. The site gives BCEMS easy access to the hospital and to U.S. 231.