While its square footage has been reduced by more than 80% from its previous location, Easton Emergency Medical Services isn’t missing a beat.
As of March 25, the crew is bedding down in a house on a farm owned by Gilbertie’s Organic Farm on Sport Hill Road, on land adjacent to the “old firehouse” at the intersection of Route 59 and Center Road.
“Yesterday was our first full 24-hour day of operation,” said EMS Chief Jonathon Arnold. “Our crew slept here last night.”
The crew is now operating out of a 1,000-square-foot ranch-style house with three bedrooms. The living room has been repurposed for training, Arnold said, which will take place there for about a year.
“Service has been uninterrupted,” said Arnold. “The idea was to make it seamless.”
In February, more than 1,100 Easton voters approved a referendum to fund a construction and renovation project to overhaul EMS’s nearly 100-year-old facility and address infrastructure deficiencies and inadequate operational space. The final vote tally was 1,176 to 527 and culminated in the long-awaited goal to renovate and update the headquarters. The process included the formation of a building committee and fundraising efforts by EMS.
Arnold characterized the temporary move into the house as a community effort. “The Easton Highway Department built a tent. The Aspetuck Land Trust helped create a partnership with the farm. The house had been abandoned for several years. We paid $30,000 for the year, basically fronting the money to renovate the building,” he said.
First Selectman David Bindelglass, whose 2023 reelection campaign included building a new EMS headquarters, said the move was a big project.
“It is a major undertaking to tackle a move like this while still providing service to the community,” said Bindelglass. “The (EMS) volunteers have done much of the work themselves while public works has been working on getting the property ready with a temporary garage and gravel driveway—all so that we can begin work on the building next month.”
Renovations to the temporary headquarters included new flooring, furnished bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen, as well as upgraded electric service.
Work on the EMS headquarters, which lacks sufficient garage and office space and whose decades-old septic system was on the verge of collapse, is slated to begin April 1.
