The County of Essex is moving forward with a new paramedic base in Kingsville.
At a meeting Monday night, Kingsville council approved the build on commercial land located at 75 Road 2 E. near Division Rd.
Essex-Windsor EMS is currently leasing a portion of Kingsville's fire hall, but chief Bruce Krauter says the new facility will be a big improvement helping to decrease response times as more ambulances will be kept on site.
Krauter says expansion at the current location was not an option.
"The current leased location is a one bay garage and it was built at the time when ambulances were just a high top fan. The vehicles are much larger now. So to expand the location at the Kingsville fire hall, we'd have to put on bigger bays and that location is somewhat landlocked."
He says an upgraded station is well overdue.
"Back in 2018, we did a master plan for EMS and one of the identifiers was the Kingsville station location and the type of station that it was. So it was recommended that we should find a new location. So about a year and a half or two years ago we started looking at different properties."
Krauter says the new station will provide room for future growth as well.
"The reason for the design of the building being three bays, two deep is it gives us the ability of future enhancements, future development of EMS so that we can put vehicles into a station and we don't have to build on or add on into the future."
The new 6,400-square-foot facility will include three ambulance bays, office space and crew quarters similar to what's seen at the EMS station on Dougall Ave in Windsor.