By THE MORNING CALL

PUBLISHED: October 2, 1990 at 4:00 a.m. | UPDATED: October 3, 2021 at 1:46 a.m.

The Penn Mahoning Ambulance Association has 45 dedicated volunteers, three ambulances and a newly acquired three-bay garage that will become the group’s first headquarters.

“This building means that we will be prepared to have an EMT (emergency medical technician) on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week if needed,” said Don Handwerk, treasurer of the association.

The Penn-Mahoning group currently stations its ambulances in two locations: two at the Mahoning Valley Fire Company, near Normal Square, and one at the Andreas Volunteer Fire Company No.1 in Andreas. The recently purchased garage is on Route 309 in West Penn township, about five miles from the Andreas location.

The group had a third location in New Ringgold, but some of the New Ringgold area volunteers formed their own group about a year ago. That left the Penn Mahoning group without a base from which to serve their northwestern territory.

The association also needed more space for storage and to organize its office equipment and paperwork. Another important reason for the new building is to provide an ambulance closer to those crew members who live in the New Ringgold area.

The association serves an area of more than 108 square miles, including parts of south Tamaqua, the Mahoning Valley and East and West Penn townships.

Incorporated in 1968, the group was originally headquartered in the Mahoning Valley. As the service area grew in population, the association decided about four years ago to house one of the ambulances at the Andreas location to provide faster service to the Andreas and New Ringgold areas.

The crews handle approximately 25 emergencies a month, according to volunteer Mark Hayman.

“We cover a lot of heavily traveled roads: Routes 309, 443 and 895. The back roads, with all their twists and hills and sharp turns, make accidents much more likely,” said Hayman, one of the group’s 20 emergency medical technicians.

The association’s ability to respond quickly to emergencies has grown along with the area’s needs. advanced life support units — paramedic-based ambulance crews equipped with sophisticated medical technology — are dispatched from Gnaden Huetten Hospital in Lehighton to meet the Penn-Mahoning ambulance crew either en route or at the scene to assist with severe cardiac or respiratory emergencies.

“We usually call Gnaden Huetten because it’s so much closer, although the unit from Good Samaritan Hospital in Pottsville is also available to us,” said Handwerk.

Financial help in the form of donations from the Andreas Volunteer Fire Company No.1, its auxiliary, the West Penn and Mahoning Lion’s clubs and individuals recently enabled the group to purchase their third ambulance for about $50,000. The association stands by at the Mahoning Valley Speedway each Saturday evening for $200 per month, which also helped with the purchase.

The three-bay garage was purchased from Norman Schaeffer of New Ringgold for $30,000. The garage will be refurbished to include a septic system and a “quarter-room,” where crew members can wait for calls.

The ambulance association volunteers will do most of the remodeling work in order to keep expenses low but will contract out for the septic system and other jobs. The association pays about $5,000 per year in malpractice and other insurance, according to Handwerk.

The group plans to begin work as soon as the blueprints are approved by the township. The Penn-Mahoning Ambulance Association works closely with the Andreas and Mahoning Valley fire companies, as well as other emergency organizations.