12/20/2011 Ship News Now Editorial Blog

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ShipGirl Diaries: Touring and No News Mondays

20 December 2011 No Comment

The ground around the site is really muddy. I was told the day I went actually wasn't as muddy as other. They've had some standing water around previously. (Photo by Morgan Young)

BY MORGAN YOUNG; Blogger/Staff writer

I hate Mondays. Why? The normal reason anyone ever hates Mondays, because it’s a horrible reminder that the weekend is over and won’t becoming back around for another 5 days.
From a journalistic standpoint I tend to hate Mondays because they’re bad news days. I haven’t really figured out why other than my theory that, like me, everyone wants to get Mondays over with, going directly home after work to get start preparing for – wait for it – Tuesday.
So, events aren’t attended, press releases aren’t submitted, in a nutshell nothing goes on. For some reason though on Fridays I can’t pay people not to give me news.
This Monday was no different, I pretty frantically made phone calls to find news and checked Twitter and Facebook, what I like to call Ship’s underground news channel, for anything possible to write about.
Plugin Alert: If you have a community event, news tip, or another information you think we should know, don’t hesitate to email me at myoung@shipnewsnow.com or call my office at 262-4753.
Getting away from ranting, a city girls game of sport, I wanted to tell you guys about the tour of the Shippensburg Area EMS and Vigilant Hose Company facility on Walnut Bottom Road that I took on Sunday.
First some homework, the end result of my tour is on the website. Read the article  to find out the progress that’s been made there. Well, the tour was muddy and left my feet and nose cold for awhile but it was well worth it.
Kevin Nehf, vice-president of the company, and Shawn Hartsock, the EMS director of operations, showed me around. I don’t want to get into too much detail about the new facility; you can read it in the article. I do want to say that the building is huge! And has a lot of cool, environmentally friendly and cost cutting features. I think it’s going to be a great asset to the community once it’s finished.
What I really want to tell you about is the impromptu tour Mr. Hartsock gave me of the current EMS facility. While on the new facility tour Hartsock mentioned that EMS ambulances are at the moment stored outside, because they don’t have anywhere to store them at the station. This isn’t something I hadn’t heard before, but when he began explaining just how small the station was I felt like it was something I should see for myself, in the interest of journalism and whatnot.
I never had the opportunity to go by the station before and I have to say I was shocked not by the size of the building, which is actually a renovated gym underneath some rental properties, but how well EMS personnel have been able to cope with the lack of space.
Nine officers all use one cramped office. The two bunk rooms are small and because of the space issue give the occupants no privacy. Worst of all is the fact that the station has to leave some storage areas unlocked so that the tenants above them can get to the circuit breaker and whatnot, if there’s an emergency.
I never saw an emergency services building so small in Maryland. It really showed me how much the emergency agency really needs the new facility. I’m glad that the EMS personnel and members of Vigilant Hose will have some elbow room soon.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the station I would definitely take the time to check it out.