A building that was part of the Kalona annexation of Shiloh will soon become an ambulance bay. At Tuesday’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting county ambulance director Jeremy Peck explained the situation, “This is actually a large weight lifted off of our shoulders to try to improve the response times in the north end of the county. The City of Kalona is going to own the building. They will be moving stuff out of that bay today and hopefully the contractor will be in there tomorrow to start working on it with the goal still being in there by the first of July. … There’s an agreement that’s being made right now that the county will not have to pay a dime for any of this for three years. At that point then we will look at the lease again and determine whether we want to move forward with it or not move forward with it.”

Last week, the board of supervisors unanimously approved having one of the two ambulances on shift based out of the northern part of the county. The other ambulance on shift will be based at the Washington facility the county purchased. The city councils of both Wellman and Kalona approved action at each of their meetings Monday night for each city to pay $22,500 to make the building into an ambulance bay. It is located at 2285 133rd Street.

Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh explains the county ambulance service will pay for utilities and Kalona will provide a $0 per month lease to the county. Peck said the agreement will be reviewed in three years. The agreement will be reviewed by the county attorney and then given to all parties involved to formally approve.