The City of Holly Grove has a new ambulance service. The new service began Oct. 1 and provides both a paramedic and basic life-saving services.
As a private entity, the service is contracted through the City of Holly Grove by memberships per household. The memberships are $55 per year and are paid on monthly on the city's water bills.
Director of the service is David Donovan. Donovan is a native of Mountain View, but moved to Holly Grove from Dermott. He has been in the ambulance business for 20 years. Donovan is a paramedic, a certified training officer for fire departments, an Advance Cardiac Life Support Instructor (ACLS), an EMT instructor and a BLS (Basic Life Support) and CPR instructor.
Donovan noted that the ambulance service is different from many services in that the yearly membership not only covers members of the household but anyone in the household, even a visitor.
"We'll pick up anyone in the house," Donovan said.
The service covers the entire Holly Grove waterworks district, which is approximately 1,000-1,4000 households. Coverage extends to as far north as Highway 17-79 and as far south as the White River Bridge in St. Charles.
Donovan has owned his own service for years and recently sold his service in Dermott. He was first approached about coming to Holly Grove by Police Chief Jason Johnson and then met with Mayor Lula Tyler about coming to the city.
"After meeting with Ms. Tyler, I was really impressed with her. She is a very forward-thinking mayor and wants a lot for Holly Grove. That and the fact that I didn't want to get out of the EMS business was what helped me decide to move to Holly Grove," Donovan said.
Donovan has provided the four trucks for the City of Holly Grove. Currently, only two trucks are in use. One is a paramedic service and the other basic services.
Since opening, Donovan noted that the service has estimated [averaged] about one run a day. He noted that with the paramedic service, reaction time is two minutes, with basic life services having a standard eight minute reaction time.
Working for the service along with Donovan is Kim Slaughter, a regisered nurse and EMT of Monticello. Slaughter serves as the quality control coordinatoir insuring that patients are treated properly. She has 20 years service as an RN and is only 16 hours from having her paramedic license. Other employees are Robin Cook of Dermott, full-time and part-time employees Lindy Baker of Moro and Sean Perry of Dermott.
"Our goal is to provide good quality service for the citizens of Holly Grove," Donovan said.
Currently, the ambulance is operating through the county's 911 system. Calls are dispatched through 911 by the county jail. Donovan noted that the service is working on a pager system for EMTs in order to have a quicker dispatch time.
The ambulance service is located in the former Bank of Holly Grove annex building on Dr. Herd Stone Street, is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can be reached on their business line at (870) 462-8003 or in an emergency call 911.
