JANUARY 22, 2025|
Photo – Proposed ambulance barn site in Hanna – by Matt Copeland Bigfoot99
Numerous setbacks have delayed construction of a new ambulance barn in Hanna.
South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services provides ambulance service to the towns of Encampment, Riverside, Saratoga, Hanna, Elk Mountain, and Medicine Bow. Because of its large coverage area, SCWEMS stations ambulances around the county.
In Hanna, the medical transportation service shares space with the Hanna Fire Department. However, the fire station lacks enough space for SCWEMS to properly maintain their ambulances. For that reason, the SCWEMS Joint Powers Board chose to look into constructing a stand-alone ambulance barn in Hanna. Carbon County School District Two offered to donate a portion of land in the center of town, where the former Hanna Elementary School was located. The new ambulance barn was estimated at $520,000.
To help offset the cost of the structure, SCWEMS applied for and received a $210,000 American Rescue Plan Act grant through the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments.
SCWEMS Director Stayton Mosbey told Bigfoot99 that the Joint Powers Board was only able to spend roughly $50,000 of the grant money before the state claimed the remaining funds. With the engineering completed, Mosbey said SCWEMS can begin construction of a new ambulance barn once additional revenue sources are found.
The federal government initially set a deadline of December 30, 2024, for grant recipients to commit the funds to a specific project. However, last August, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon issued a letter moving the deadline up to October 1st. Any funds not encumbered by that time would be reclaimed by the Office of State Lands and Investments and directed towards water improvement projects around the state.
Several Carbon County entities were unable to make the October 1st deadline and had their ARPA funding reclaimed, including SCWEMS and the City of Rawlins, which lost roughly $1.5 million. Director Mosbey placed the entirety of the blame for losing the grant money on the state.
With the deadline looming, SCWEMS began rushing to complete the Hanna ambulance barn project. Now that the majority of the grant has been reclaimed by the state, Mosbey said engineers will have more time to test the proposed construction site and ensure that it is suitable for development.
The property donated by Carbon County School District Two was the site of the former Hanna Elementary School. The ground under and around the school, originally located on the corner of School and 2nd Streets, was collapsing into the underground coal mines that run beneath the town of Hanna. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Abandoned Mine Lands Division pumped approximately 42,500 cubic yards of a void-filling grout mixture into the mines beneath the location of the proposed ambulance barn.
Mosbey said he is confident that the site is safe to build on.
Collapsing mines and reclaimed state funding aren’t the only issues faced by the medical transport company. Mosbey said he discovered that a check written against the SCWEMS fuel account was intercepted by an unknown person, in a scam called “check washing.”
The bank informed Mosbey about the fraud attempt before any money could be stolen. SCWEMS was forced to undertake the time-consuming process of closing its accounts and opening new ones.
Mosbey said that building an ambulance barn in Hanna has taken longer than anticipated. Despite losing the ARPA grant, the SCWEMS director remains hopeful that he’ll be able to secure additional funding to complete the project.
