Washington County is purchasing a building for the newly created county-operated ambulance department. Washington County Supervisor Chairman Jack Seward explained the situation at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, “We came out of closed session, we authorized Tim Elliott (realtor) and the county attorney to offer $340,000 on property discussed in closed session and $150,000 in earnest money on behalf of the county. That motion was approved. The offer was made and the offer was accepted.” The building is located at 1120 North 8th Avenue in Washington. That’s the building that is currently used by the private firm Washington County Ambulance, Inc. The motion passed four to zero, with Richard Young abstaining.

On Tuesday, the supervisors unanimously approved a motion to station one of the two ambulances on shift in the northern part of the county. Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck asked the supervisors for their approval to improve response time in the northern part of the county. Peck declined to give any details on location and said the county would only be responsible for paying for electricity. Peck said he has a meeting scheduled for this Thursday with representatives from Wellman and Kalona.

Earlier this month, the Riverside City Council voted to discontinue discussions to have an ambulance being based in Riverside, after being told it would cost the city $125,000. The council had been in discussions with Peck about quicker response times.

The county ambulance service will begin on July 1st, with one rig based in Washington and the other in the northern part of the county.