PIERSON — A partnership between UF Health ShandsCair and Med-Trans Corporation will bring a helicopter air ambulance facility to this town’s municipal airport.
Representatives from UF Health first spoke about the plan at a Pierson town council meeting on Jan. 6. In that meeting, Allen Parrish of UF Health, told council members that they would later meet with the Volusia County Council to get permission to set up business at the Pierson airstrip.
On Jan. 20, Volusia County Council members voted 6-0 to approve the air ambulance service operation. A meeting agenda item noted that Med-Trans Corporation and ShandsCair would be providing advanced life support service.
Pierson signs lease to have UF Health air ambulance at airport
After getting approval from Volusia County, UF Health and Med-Trans Corporation signed a lease with the town of Pierson on April 1.
According to lease documents obtained by The News-Journal on April 2, the town will be leasing a half-acre to an acre of land at the municipal airport to UF Health and Med-Trans.
The property has an address of 128 E. Washington Ave. in Pierson, but the airstrip also borders North U.S. 17.
Parrish told the town council on Jan. 6 that the partners would construct the facility at their expense. That was outlined in the lease and a description of the improvements at the airstrip include the installation of a temporary modular crew trailer, a storage shed, and the construction of a helipad.
The facility is expected to be completed in six months, according to the lease.
UF Health and Med-Trans will maintain public liability insurance of no less than $1 million for personal injury, including death. The medical service partners will also be responsible for $1 million in insurance for property damage, the lease noted.
A pollution insurance policy of no less than $1 million per occurrence is also part of the lease agreement.
UF Health and Med-Trans Corporation will pay the town a year’s rent for the property as a starter, and after that, monthly payments of $2,000 a month, the lease highlighted.
Helicopter ambulance service in Pierson will serve four counties
In outlining the plan to Pierson council members on Jan. 6, Parrish said the air ambulance plan had been in the works for a year. He said the Pierson airport is a good location for UF Health and Med-Trans to “set up and get a foot in Volusia County,” but that the medical service will be beneficial to not only Pierson but surrounding areas.
“Our interest is strictly to have the medical helicopter here to serve the area. There (are) four counties basically we could service from this area, but that’s pretty much what our interest is,” Parrish told the town council.
Pierson Mayor David Gray Leonhard said in the council meeting that the four-county area — northwest Volusia County, southern Putnam County, eastern Lake County, and southern Flagler County — is a hub “for like emergency helicopter and EVAC responses.”
“My personal feeling is that I think that it not only will be of benefit to the town of Pierson but it will be a benefit to the entire area,” Leonhard said. “Plus, it will bring a little revenue in for our town and I think it would be an attribute to the airport as a whole (and) town as a whole.”
Pierson councilman Robert Greenlund agreed with Leonhard.
“It will be a huge asset for the town,” Leonhard said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Is Pierson in West Volusia getting a medical helicopter?
Reporting by Patricio G. Balona, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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