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Belpre’s daytime emergency squad coverage begins Friday

BELPRE – The new daytime emergency squad serving the city of Belpre will begin Friday morning.

Jarrod Strouth, general manager /CEO with Pro Care Medical Transportation Service, attended Monday’s meeting of Belpre City Council and brought the ambulance the company will be using to provide service in Belpre.

Council approved the one-year contract with Pro Care in March to provide daytime emergency squad service in Belpre, while the Belpre Volunteer Fire Department provides service during nighttime hours.

The company has brought its own personnel and two trucks – one to serve as backup – and will operate from Belpre Volunteer Fire Department Station 1 at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Stone Road.

“We’ll start Friday, the 26th, at 6 a.m.,” he said at Monday’s meeting

Pro Care will provide coverage from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. seven days a week. Strouth said he will be one of the crew members serving in Belpre for Pro Care.

“I’m really excited about it, coming to Belpre and serving the citizens of Belpre,” Strouth said. “It’s our third 911 contract in the last four months that we’ve started. We are really looking forward to coming to the town and taking care of residents.”

Pro Care also provides service in Lancaster, Logan, Circleville, Columbus, Mansfield, Mount Vernon and Ashland, he said.

Mayor Mike Lorentz said he is pleased to see Pro Care beginning its service in Belpre.

“It’s good to have that back in place. We have an older city and we have an active city. Now it’s summer time, the pools are open, kids are out riding bikes, skateboarding and so forth. We’ve got to have that service,” he said.

In other business at Monday’s meeting, council approved the final reading of an ordinance changing the way the city’s water department conducts meter readings. Safety-Service Director Ron Cross said the city currently reads meters in a different section of the city once per week using automatic reading equipment.

With the passage of the ordinance, that will be changed to once a month for the whole city, which will free up more time for the city worker handling that duty to assist with other ongoing projects and tasks in the department, he said.

Council member Susan Abdella, chair of the finance committee, said a finance committee meeting will be 6 p.m. May 31 to discuss fire department capital funds and the proposed drug dog program, which will be funded primarily through community donations and pledges.

Council member Donna Miller, chair of the police and fire committee, called a committee meeting for 6:30 p.m. June 12, just before the next scheduled council meeting. The committee meeting will also discuss the drug dog program, she said.

Council member Judy Drake, chair of the economic development committee, said a town hall meeting will be 7 p.m. June 22 at the Belpre Senior Center to discuss a final report from the Voinovich School of Public Affairs at Ohio University.

The group has been working for several months with the Belpre Area Chamber of Commerce on a project to review economic development priorities and opportunities in the city of Belpre. The meeting is open to anyone who wants to participate.

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