NEWELL—Traversing the roads in South Dakota—back roads, side roads, main roads, in the heat of the summer or bitter cold of the winter, a reliable vehicle is a must. Now, when you add into it the responsibility of saving lives, that reliability becomes even more important. The Butte County Ambulance of Newell had been running the same ambulance since 2002. This past week, a brand new state-of-the-art ambulance rolled into town! A new life-saving bus to serve the local population has arrived!
Although getting a new ambulance is exciting, the old one was purchased brand new and has been around for a long time. Ambulance Director, Sherry Hocking, explained, “104,000 miles is not a lot of miles, really, for a diesel engine, but we pull a lot of power, and then they update safety features all the time, so they don’t recommend you keep ambulances in service that long, but I don’t know—it’s kind of a bittersweet moment, I think, for the crew, because a lot of the crew really liked that rig and didn’t really want to see it go.”
Even though much of the staff is attached to the old vehicle and letting it go is hard, the ambulance crew knew what needed to happen. “That rig was bought brand new, and so it’s kind of like losing a piece of the family,” said Hocking.
But, needing to keep up with safety and new technology, the old vehicle needed to go! The work to get the money to afford the new bus began. “So we’ve been working probably for the last year and a half to get a new ambulance—our old ambulance was a 2002 and not recommended that you run them that long—and so we started working with the Butte County Ambulance Board of Directors to save money and budget for a new ambulance. And then Newell, with the fundraiser—the Festival of Trees—and memorial money that we are given from people—we were able to put $45,000 towards the new ambulance,” shared Hocking. The ambulance had a hefty price tag of $224,900.00.
The Butte County Ambulance, Newell, covers over 1,500 square miles and often gets called out to even farther-away areas when asked; therefore, it needs the best possible technology and safety equipment available to care for the people of the community.
The crew has traveled far and wide, and even covered for other ambulance services whenever they have been asked. There are 14 crew members working out of the Newell station. “We have drivers and just gained a nurse—she just finished her probation. Her husband is still on probation, and we just had a driver who just took her EMT and passed it,” said Hocking. “We’re volunteer, but we do have on-call—which you sign up for—and then we’re only paid when we’re on a call.”
Much of the Newell Ambulance crew has worked together for a long time and are a tight-knit family. Hocking shared, “We’re very blessed as a crew! We have a Board of Directors over us, two Butte County Commissioners, two Belle Fourche Commissioners, and one Newell Commissioner, and they take very good care of Butte County Ambulance as a whole! If we go to them for a request for something, they’re just very open to try to figure out how to make it happen—if it’s going to help us out. I think they’re very supportive!”
Even though it is a brand new ambulance, it may come with a few problems! “It’s been in service for just two days, we went on three runs Sunday morning and I was a little lost in the back just trying to figure out things, but we will get there,” said Hocking.
Anyone that is interested in becoming part of the Butte County Ambulance, Newell, check out the next set of classes that are coming up to train EMTs. “I have a class starting December 8 that is for six students—paid for under a grant so that it won’t cost any funds to do it—it’s for EMT training. To become an EMT Basic, and then in the spring I’ll do an EMR, which is Emergency Medical Responder,” said Hocking. Reach out to the Butte County Ambulance in Newell if you are interested in learning more about the upcoming training.
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