Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Central EMS Passes On Vacant Wal-Mart
— Central EMS officials decided not to buy a vacant Wal-Mart Express building in Prairie Grove after a tour of the facility Wednesday evening.
“I can’t see us moving our headquarters that far out of our customer base,” said David Dayringer, executive committee chairman and Fayetteville fire chief. “I wish (the building) were in Fayetteville.”
The ambulance service serves Fayetteville, Elkins, Farmington, Goshen, Greenland, Lincoln, Prairie Grove, Tontitown, Johnson, West Fork and Winslow. Fayetteville is the most populated area served.
At least 10 ambulance execut ive committee members and employees toured the 14,742-square-foot building at 881 Buchanan St..
Officials wanted to see whether the building could house Central EMS operations under one roof.
Dayringer said the building is too far outside Fayetteville to serve as a headquarters and too large to serve as a station. The building also would be high-maintenance and would need expensive alterations, he said.
Currently, operations, administration and dispatch are housed with one ambulance and a maintenance crew in Station One on South School Avenue in Fayetteville. The space is crowded, said Steve Harrison, assistant chief previously.
Nearby, Central EMS has a training facility where supplies also are stored, Chief Becky Stewart said previously. The ambulance service also leases property in Farmington for $32,000 a month to store spare ambulances, she said. The lease comes up for renewal in February, Stewart said.
Central EMS is making do, but the ambulance service has outgrown the facilities it has, Stewart said. Housing services under one roof would increase efficiency, she said.
Wal-Mart closed the Prairie Grove store earlier this year and Springdale-based Harps Food Stores bought the property in June. Harps is asking $950,000 for the property, according to a real estate summary presented Wednesday.
The company is reaching out to certain agencies to sell, but no offers have been made, said T.J. Lefler, executive vice president, principal, at Sage Partners, a real estate agency. Harps isn’t interested in selling the property to a competitor, Lefler said. The property has been shown to some cities, he said.
Dayringer said the building is nice but not what the ambulance service needs.
The facility’s heating and cooling system is installed in a way that makes it difficult to heat or cool only certain parts. That means it would be difficult to heat only needed areas for offices or overnight crews, officials said. Ambulance officials also said they had no specific plans on how to use the building after touring it.