By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Residents in the Kents Store areas might be waiting longer for ambulance service. Kents Store Volunteer Fire Department Chief Andrew Pullen announced Thursday (Jan. 16) that they had requested the county remove the staffed ambulance stationed at the fire station during the day shift.
In a lengthy statement on the department’s Facebook page, Pullen stressed that the removal of the ambulance had nothing to do with the allegations surrounding the recent arrest of Director of Emergency Services James True.
Pullen said that most of the career EMTs fit in well with the volunteers. “Unfortunately, it is true that there have been a few, and only a few, conflicts between career personnel and our volunteers.”
The nature of these conflicts was apparently serious enough that the fire department’s leadership team went to the county to have the career staff removed.
“We cannot and will not expand on this, but assure everyone that while we were reluctant to do so, we do feel it was done so in the best long term interest of everyone.”
The staffed ambulance service was inaugurated at the Kents Store Fire Department on July 1, 2024 and provided service during the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. shift.
Pullen said the removal of the service meant that response times for an ambulance will revert back to what they were prior to July. “More than likely an ambulance will be coming from Palmyra, Fork Union, sometimes Lake Monticello and maybe from a mutual air agency such as Louisa or Goochland,” he wrote. “We simply cannot predict the unpredictable, but it will take longer for an ambulance.”
County Attorney Daniel Whitten said that the county “made the decision to decrease the level of EMS service temporarily due to our career staffing shortage and after meeting with Kents Store leadership to understand their concerns.”
Whitten said the decision had not been made lightly “but was necessary so we do not overcommit our existing career staff and the fire volunteers at Kents Store.”
Pullen said they hope to work with the new interim Emergency Services Director to “address the communities needs and not only return the staffing to what it has been since July, but to expand it to 24/7 in the next fiscal year.”
