History of ACEMS

As with many communities, the Ambulance service in Allen County was operated by local funeral homes. The arrangement had lasted a long time; for example T.W. Crow & Son business had run a horse drawn ambulance in the early 20th century. The system was considered mutually beneficial. Local government bore less expense of operational costs, while the funeral homes advertised on the ambulances and stood a good chance of picking up business from families of transported patients who didn’t survive.

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However, by the late 1970’s, new state regulations regarding medical training and equipment requirements had cut well into the funeral home’s profits in running ambulances. According to Citizen-Times archives, by 1978, Allen County Funeral Home had turned its ambulances over to the county.

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It was recommended a new county ambulance service be established. Discussions – and several joint sessions between the court and the Scottsville City Council – continuing through the remainder of 1978, with options such as a volunteer ambulance service being discussed. On December 4, 1978, the council and court agreed in a joint session to install a new publicly-operated ambulance service.

Where to house the new service was discussed. The council at one point in November 1978 voted to house it at the Civil Defense (today’s Scottsville Allen County Rescue Squad) building. For logistical reasons, others preferred that it be located near the War Memorial Hospital. It would be.

The first run for the new Allen County Ambulance Service was, Lex Carter recalled, “something after midnight of January 1, 1979.” The new agency got a trial by snow – several inches of it that fell in early January 1979, causing a series of accidents that kept the ambulance crews rolling.

In the first year we had 700 runs. Today we average over 3,000 runs a year. We have 15 full-time employees and 24 part-time employees. We have two full-time crews working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to serve this community.