Dr. John Warner Hospital Ambulance Manager Terrence Hubbard has been hard at work getting a plan in place for a DeWitt County ambulance service after the March referendum.

According to Hubbard, the plan after the March vote is to, should the referendum pass, approach the DeWitt County Board, who will be the governing body in charge of what happens with the service, to establish a community based non-profit ambulance service. He says there are some aspects to planning for a non-profit service that can be planned for right now. One of those being cost. Hubbard explains he has begun to look at what the service will cost.

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The situation DeWitt County faces is very similar to the situation Logan County faced nearly a decade ago. Hubbard explains in terms of housing their vehicles, for the first few years, they will take the approach Logan County did and allow the organization to get on it's feet and they will house their vehicles at the DJWH and rent the space from them.

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Hubbard explains they still need to work with the hospital to come to an agreement on what it will cost to use the hospital's facilities and to acquire the ambulances from the hospital.

Hubbard's hope for the non-profit organization is to have a Board of Directors comprised of community members to be on the board to give those in the community a voice.

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Hubbard says the DJWH has two options for their ambulances. He says they can turn them over to DeWitt County, and the non-profit group can come in rent them from the County. Or they can keep them and rent them out to the non-profit group for their use. He says the hospital will do whatever is legally and financially best for them.