Northwest EMS breaks ground on new Manheim facility

Northwest EMS not only hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its new facility in Manheim on Thursday, May 21, but the organization also kicked off a capital campaign to raise $900,000 to fund it. And fittingly, it was held during the 41st National EMS Week.

“This is just the beginning. We expect the Manheim community to rally around us,” said campaign chair Mike Williams at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Northwest’s facility will be part of an emergency services campus along Colebrook and North Charlotte streets that will also include a new police headquarters for the Manheim Borough Police Department. The police headquarters will be located on the one-acre tract that formerly housed the Ammon K. Gibble Legion Post 419. The one-story EMS building will be located on a 1.57-acre tract along W. Colebrook St. that Manheim Veterans Memorial Ambulance Association had purchased from the Legion in November 2000.

Northwest EMS Campaign to Save Lives chair Mike Williams (left) and community outreach coordinator Lori Shenk (right) sign one of the shovels used during the groundbreaking ceremony for the organization’s new facility in Manheim. (Photo by Rochelle Shenk)

The new EMS building will feature a feature a training/community room, two offices, lounge, lunch room, fitness area, separate bunk rooms for men and women as well as a 2,240-square-foot and four-bay garage for apparatus. Scott Kingsboro, Northwest EMS executive director, said that a gold shovel signed by officials and Northwest EMS representatives during the groundbreaking ceremony will be placed in a showcase in the new facility.

Manheim Veterans Memorial Ambulance Association merged with Northwest EMS in October 2013. The organization currently serves the Manheim area from a facility at 26 E. High St. that was built in 1904 and is leased from the borough for $1 per year.

“That building has served our community well. However, it has been inadequate to meet our needs for some time. It’s lacking in adequate space for personnel, and with two vehicles in the two-bay garage, there’s only inches between them, which makes it difficult to restock supplies. East High Street is busy and presents many challenges to ambulance drivers as they leave and return to the building. Our capital campaign, The Campaign to Save Lives, reflects our commitment to provide 24-hour coverage to all the people that we serve,” explained Lori Shenk, the organization’s community outreach coordinator, adding that last year the Manheim station was dispatched on 2,032 calls.

The Campaign to Save Lives is seeking to raise $900,000 through five-year pledges from businesses, community institutions and residents of its service area. Mike Williams has been named as chair of the campaign. Although he recently retired after 34 years as head coach of the Manheim Central Barons Football program, he remains on the coaching staff as a part-time coach and advisor for the team.

“This new facility will be a benefit to our community,” Coach Williams said. “Being chair of the capital campaign is perhaps the most important thing that I’ve done in my life.”

This architectural rendering shows what the new Northwest EMS building will look like once completed.

Williams also has a personal connection with the site that will be the EMS’ new home. For more than three decades the Legion maintained a baseball field for the community at that location. The field was originally dedicated to local sports enthusiast Erwin “Erch” Williams, Coach William’s father, and a dedication plaque had been installed on the backstop.

“It’s a neat connection,” Williams said. “The field had not been used for a number of years, so I do have ‘home plate’ in my basement. I’d love to have the plaque as well. If he were here, he would certainly been have behind the effort to provide better emergency services for the community.”

Mike Graham and Lew Jury are serving as honorary co-chairs. One of the founding members of the ambulance company in Manheim in 1948, Graham volunteered with the ambulance for many years and is active in community organizations such as the Manheim Lions Club. Jury, who served as Manheim Central superintendent for 15 years before retiring in 1993, currently serves on the board of community organizations such as the Manheim Historical Society.

“These gentlemen all bring a passion for their community to the table and are eager to lend their expertise to the campaign leadership team,” Shenk said.

The new facility is being developed in conjunction with the police headquarters, and both facilities will share access drives from Colebrook and Charlotte streets. Plans for both facilities have received conditional approval by the Lancaster County Planning Commission. The Legion building was demolished at the beginning of May to make way for the new police facility. Shenk said that Northwest EMS anticipates site development to occur in the summer with building completion in winter.

Groundbreaking for the police facility has not yet occurred, as the borough does have funding in place for that project. Since they will be on the same campus and share stormwater facilities and driveway accesses, the plans for both projects have been developed by David Christian and Associates and are being considered as one plan, but the borough and the EMS each own their individual tracts of land.

(Left to right) Northwest EMS representatives Scott Kingsboro and Lori Shenk and capital campaign chair Mike Williams and  one of the honorary co-chairs Lew Jury with the signed shovel that was used during the groundbreaking ceremony for the organization’s new facility in Manheim. Honorary co-chair Mike Graham is not pictured.

In addition to the Manheim facility, Northwest EMS has two other locations &tstr; one in Maytown in a building that’s shared with East Donegal Township’s municipal office police department, and a headquarters at 380 W. Bainbridge Road, Elizabethtown.

Northwest EMS is no stranger to capital campaigns. Bob Enck, vice-chair of the organization’s board, chaired a 2006 campaign to raise $1.4 million for additions and renovations to its Elizabethtown facility.

For more information about Northwest EMS’ Manheim construction project, contact Lori Shenk at 665-2904, 371-8282, or lshenk@nwems86.org. A video promotion is available online at youtube.com/watch?v=FaYdxc5qnsA&feature=youtu.be.

Rochelle Shenk is a correspondent for the Lititz Record Express. She welcomes your comments and questions at RAASHENK@aol.com.

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