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American Legion Ambulance — serving our community in a number of ways
For 86 years the group know as the American Legion has existed in the United States. Post 108, in Sutter Hill, has also existed that long and after decades of public service, the group is still giving to the community in a number of ways.
The latest is in the form of jobs and an extended ambulance coverage to Calaveras County communities.
The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on April 13 to award an emergency ambulance coverage contract for two-thirds of its county to American Legion Ambulance Service. The five-year contract is effective July 1, said American Legion Ambulance General Manager Al Lennox.
Lennox said those with allegiance to the county's current service were for the most part appeased by American Legion's plan to hire about 40 people from Calaveras County, create six new ambulance locations there and bring in new equipment, including a major disaster vehicle, full-time operations manager and a full-time administrative assistant in a business office.
"And we will do business in Calaveras County," said Al Lennox, general manager of the ambulance service, which has been the sole ambulance service to Amador County non-stop since 1929.
The Legion's service will cover North and South zones, while Ebbetts Pass Fire Protection District was awarded the East zone, after Calaveras supervisors unanimously took the advice of an ad-hoc committee which researched bids over a year and made recommendations. Five companies placed bids, Lennox said, including the Legion, which put in a 400-pager that took about six months to compile.
Ebbetts FPD will cover the Highway 4 corridor from Murphys to the Alpine County line, Lennox said.
American Legion plans to have four 24-hour coverage cars, or ambulances, with seven days a week coverage, plus to 12-hour "flex cars."
"Seventy percent of our call volume happens during daytime," Lennox said. The two 12-hour cars will fill in and supplement the four full-timers "and you can adjust those 12-hour cars, not only when but where they are."
"There was some controversy," Lennox said. "There were a few citizens at all the meetings who felt an allegiance to the existing service."
The decision was medical, he said. "It's about a service."
"It must be based on professionalism and clinical sophistication," Lennox said. "Our vision in American Legion - and we live and breathe it - is the relentless pursuit of perfection."
He said the five bids showed that the process was totally open, fair and legal and with "significant precedence."
"Our attitude was, if we didn't win the bid, good for Calaveras County," Lennox said. "It's about getting the best possible care for the citizens of Calaveras County."
Since supervisors awarded the contract, he said he has received "a considerable amount of calls and letter welcoming us to the county and wishing us luck."
The Legion serves the community as well, with donated training and external defribulators, youth scholarships, sponsorship of scouts, 4-H, Future Farmers of America, sports clubs, two baseball teams, Five Alive and Every 15 Minutes. They teach CPR coursed and go to churches and school rooms.
They "go everywhere were asked" and go to career days at junior and senior high schools. Also governments and non-profit groups are allowed to use the Legion Hall and the ambulance service's training rooms at no cost, other than to agree to clean up afterward.
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