AMED breaks ground on new headquarters
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As late as 1967, towing companies and funeral homes provided ambulance service in the Altoona area, and there were fistfights in the street between tow operators competing for patients.
That changed by 1969 -- 50 years ago -- with the founding of AMED, the Altoona Mobile Emergency Department, a cooperative venture between the city's two hospitals -- one that led in 1981 to AMED's becoming an independent authority, in response to allegations by Mercy Hospital that Altoona was getting more than its share of transported patients.
Those tow operator fistfights seemed relics of a lost era Tuesday at a groundbreaking in Lakemont for AMED's proposed new headquarters, substation and training center, with Executive Director Gary Watters and board Chairman Ray Hess recalling the history before about 35 people gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking.
The actual groundbreaking had already taken place: Workers were operating excavating equipment on the stripped surface centered on the building footprint.
The training center is critical for the organization's future, because it's become increasingly difficult to recruit emergency service workers, according to AMED officials.
It will enable AMED to fill its own need for workers -- and probably the need for other ambulance services in the region, according to Hess.
It will also be used for community education, Hess said.
The building's main or public entrance will face Reimer Street, perpendicular to Park Avenue, said architect Dave Albright, who designed the building with help from Diviney & Associates, structural engineers; Pyramid Engineering, mechanical/electrical engineers; and P. Joseph Lehman Inc., civil engineers.
The ambulance bays will be on the opposite side.
The training room entrance, along with a patio for breaks, sheltered by a roof overhang, will face Park Avenue and Peoples Natural Gas Field, Albright said.
The facade for the administrative offices, which are on the second floor, and for the station living quarters, will face Shand Avenue, Albright said.
The main exterior material is a "stone-look masonry product," with earthtone tans and grays, Albright said.
AMED is still awaiting approval for an emergency-only access driveway to Park Avenue, so ambulances can get away quicker, while minimizing disturbance to residential neighbors with their sirens and lights, Albright said.
The hope is that the driveway will be completed at about the same time as the building, next spring.
"This building sets us up for the next 50 years," Watters said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.