FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Capt. Dave Wheaton, Lee County Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
                (941) 335-1600

FORT MYERS, Fla. (February 21, 2001) – Lee County Emergency Medical Services has purchased three new ambulances to improve accessibility on the county’s barrier islands.

One of the new ambulances will be deployed each week for the next three weeks. The ambulances cost $80,831 each and were manufactured by American Emergency Vehicles out of Jefferson, North Carolina. Lee County Fleet Management purchased the vehicles through Sam Galloway Ford.

The ambulances will serve Boca Grande, Pine Island and Sanibel and are smaller units to better navigate narrow roads and maneuver through overhanging vegetation. The units now serving those islands will be used as backups for the entire fleet, which now numbers 34.

In September, the Board of Lee County Commissioners voted to buy four new 24-hour ambulances (at a fully equipped cost of about $200,000 each) to improve response time reliability. EMS will be purchasing these vehicles later in the year and is hiring the medics to staff them.

Lee County EMS provides out-of-hospital advanced life support response and care to more than 54,000 citizens and visitors each year and also operates an air ambulance helicopter. Its annual budget is $15.9 million and it employs 170 people.