EDITORIAL: More ambulances a win for community

With the Monday announcement that STAR Ambulance plans to open a Greencastle station, a number of questions sprang to mind.

What does it mean for Putnam County Operation Life?

Will STAR be a direct competitor to OL?

Does this have anything to do with Putnam County Hospital?

Will STAR begin taking 911 calls locally?

Some of these questions have already been answered (See story page 1) while time will only tell in other cases.

None of them, though, address the most important question for you, the residents of Putnam County.

What do additional ambulances in the community mean for local residents?

The answer is that more ambulances can only be a good thing.

Operation Life is something of a Putnam County institution. Established in 1974, OL was a pioneer in emergency ambulance service in the county.

Almost 43 years later, this service continues, but another provider has seen a local need for a different kind of ambulance service in Putnam County.

For some time now, STAR has been responding frequently to transfer calls from Putnam County Hospital and other local medical facilities.

The opening of a station is simply a way for STAR to meet that need more conveniently.

And that’s a plus for the community. OL provides a vital service for Putnam County, one that some of us literally could not live without.

However, Operation Life has at time been unable to meet another local need, that of facility transfers.

The hope is that two more ambulances based in Greencastle — whatever logo they have on the side — will meet that need.

None of us can say for sure what the future holds.

Will STAR’s presence hurt OL?

Possibly.

Can the two coexist, working in a complementary way?

Maybe.

Will Putnam County benefit from two more ambulances on call in the county?

Absolutely.