An emergency medical helicopter company that specializes in servicing rural communities is scheduled to start operating at the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport on July 1.
The Ohio County Commission on Monday approved a month-to-month lease agreement with Missouri-based Air Evac Lifeteam to operate from the airport. Airport Manager Tom Tominack said the private company also has a local base in East Liverpool.
The airport operation will consist of 13 medical personnel including nurses, paramedics and four pilots. Tominack said the $1,050 monthly lease includes an office, space to house crew members and a hangar to store the helicopter and conduct maintenance. The company will operate 24 hours a day.
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The Ohio State Highway Patrol is changing the way it dispatches troopers by combining the dispatchers from six counties into one center in St. Clairsville.
Patrol Staff Lt. Matt Evans, who is assistant district commander, said troopers still will be stationed at the Steubenville post on Cadiz Road after the change occurs later this summer.
The patrol invested in a new radio system — a Multi-Agency Radio Communication System, or MARCS — that gives the patrol statewide communication capabilities.
Troopers used to fill in as dispatchers in the past but won’t be able to with MARCS because of the training involved, according to Evans. Dispatchers from posts in Belmont, Monroe, Washington, Morgan, Jefferson and Harrison counties in August or September all will begin work out of the St. Clairsville post, dispatching for troopers in the six counties that make up the patrol’s District 7.
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