Whitman County Fire District 12 bought a new ambulance to be housed at station No. 1, which is located on West Main Street.
The ambulance cost around $187,000, said Lee Druffel, Whitman County Fire District 12 commissioner.
“We were ready to become a transport agency,” said Mirenda Stenbakken, Whitman County Fire District 12 emergency medical services chief.
Stenbakken said becoming a transport agency meant District 12 could take people to the hospital and perform necessary care, which they could not do before.
The money partly came from an EMS levy District 12 gets, which is about 50 cents per $1,000 of valuation, Druffel said.
Stenbakken said the money collected from the levy and donations, which took five years, paid for the ambulance and the supplies.
“So basically, [we are] taking the money that we got from the patrons in our district and giving it back to the patrons in our district,” Stenbakken said.