Changing times are probably the primary cause of the shutdown of Cerro Gordo’s Community Ambulance Service.

Members of the Ambulance Service board announced last week the service would close in March.
“Nowadays people are more busy than ever. Some are working two jobs, and both adults in the house are working,” said Curt Vulgamott, president of the ambulance service board. “In society in general, we’re busier than we were in 1982 when the service was started.”

The service was volunteer-based and volunteers who responded to calls were paid for each call.  The service was required by regulation to be staffed by two licensed EMTs at all times. However, three or four volunteers were handling most of the calls and recruitment drives were unsuccessful, Vulgamott said.
The Cerro Gordo Community Ambulance Service was funded by memberships, donations and fees for providing service. Residents could buy a membership for $60 that allowed them two free ambulance calls a year. The service received no tax subsidies.

Founded in 1982, they responded to more than 5,200 calls in their 30 years of existence. In 2011, they received 164 calls for service and handled 139 of those calls. The service had two ambulances, and a roster of 13 volunteers, but sometimes struggled to staff even one ambulance, Vulgamott said. Neighboring services have had to handle some of the calls and that need for help has increased in the past few months, he said.

Though there are no official agreeements yet, Vulgamott said that he thinks that Champaign, Decatur and Kirby ambulance will probably to pick up service in their area and some residents are concerned about the time it will take for help to arrive. This might be a justified concern, according to area ambulance service providers.

“Local ambulance services provide the valuable service of being normally the first on-site and providing emergency care,” said Crystal L. Alexander, Director of Ambulance Services, Kirby Medical Center. “Losing their local service could result in delayed response times depending on where an ambulance will be responding from.”

There is no reprieve for the service, Vulgamott said.

“We’ve already sent our notice of termination to the Illinois Department of Public Health,” he said.
Seeing the community ambulance close down is a bittersweet situation, Vulgamott said.

“It seems like the time and effort we’ve put into it is gone now, but I also know we’ve treated more than 5,000 people in the past 30 years,” he said.

The only remaining ambulance service in Piatt County is Kirby Ambulance.