Community Corner

Community Ambulance Breaking Ground on New Station Saturday

Ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. at the build site on Lakeland Avenue adjacent to V.F.W. Post 433.

While it took more than six months of additional time to happen the Community Ambulance Company will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday on a new station and headquarters on Lakeland Avenue.

The company has been operating from its current station on Swayze Street in Sayville for 62 years. Twenty six years ago the Town Islip designated the new parcel for a new station and headquarters.

The groundbreaking ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. at the site, which is adjacent to the Sayville V.F.W. Post 433.

The build time on the $8 million project, slated for land just south of Chester Road,  will take between nine to 12 months,  Marc MacDonell, company treasurer and project lead. told Patch in an interview in August, 2012. MacDonell has served as an ambulance member for 36 years and on the organization’s board for two decades.

The new location will boost response time to district residents and eliminate delays in call response north of the LIRR line as there is now a potential for ambulances to have to stop at the train tracks 49 times daily, noted MacDonell.

The ambulance company’s coverage area is 23 square miles, from the Great South Bay on the south, to Nichols Road on the east, to Veteran’s Memorial Highway on the north and Connetquot Park on the west and includes the Bayport, Bohemia, Sayville and West Sayville/Oakdale fire districts.

“This location is much more central for providing fast response to everyone in the district with better access to Sunrise Highway and quicker response to MacArthur Airport, which we also serve,” said MacDonell.

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Space at the current location has gotten so tight over the past decades that the company stores one ambulance  at the airport, and is forced to store some equipment outdoors, which isn’t ideal.

The ambulance company’s project proposal indicates traffic in and out will be off Lakeland and that the policy is not to sound a siren leaving headquarters or at green light intersections.

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In building the project MacDonell said a great deal of the current tree population and foliage will be maintained with a majority of the property undisturbed. The minimum buffer will be 75 feet in the area of the building, which means a solid line of trees will remain between Chester residents’ backyards and the actual building.

“We will always work with the neighbors on any concerns and are working to make sure that noise is not an issue,” he said, noting that the new building design features just one large training room with no social recreational areas in the building.

The new station will have room for 10 ambulances, a machine shop, required rooms for equipments and supplies and administrative offices.


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