Consolidation to make operation more efficient

THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Twenty-two ambulances, 15 wheelchair transport vehicles and 160 employees are now based in a round-the-clock operation in the city's Uptown area.
Over the past 18 months, Rural Metro Ambulance has been gradually moving its staff, vehicles and vehicle maintenance operations from three other Market Street locations into the former Stackhouse Olds dealership at 3121 Market St., which had been nearly empty for 31/2 years.
Last July, when 50 employees in the company's dispatching, billing and administration departments moved from Struthers to the former Stackhouse building, Youngstown gained about $1 million in annual payroll, said Glenn Brown II, the company's Youngstown division general manager.
Open house: To celebrate bringing the vehicles and staff together into a central location and to show off its new facility, the company conducted an open house for its suppliers, community leaders, fire chiefs and health care and law enforcement personnel Tuesday.
"We looked at an area where we could help build up the city," and operate more efficiently with staff and vehicles consolidated under one roof, Brown said.
"It became a chore to manage the operation when you had four different facilities and duplication of services and telephone equipment."
Jack Brucker, the company's president and chief executive who received a bachelor's degree in business from Youngstown State University in 1973, dropped in for the observance.
His parents, Edward and Margaret Brucker, formerly of Masury, now live in Greenville.
The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company, which provides ambulance service in about 400 U.S. cities, calls itself "the largest American-owned provider of medical transportation and private fire protection in the United States.''
"It's a great facility. We're very proud of this facility. We're very proud to be in the city,'' Brucker said of the Uptown location.
"It has a big maintenance bay for our units -- we can keep them inside -- sufficient office space, and nice-sized communications center. We've made a substantial investment here for the long term."
Details: Rural Metro is leasing 36,000 square feet for 10 years from Cynthia Stackhouse, who owns the 83,000-square-foot building.
The city has provided economic incentives for the project in the form of a 75 percent property tax abatement for 10 years on the value of improvements to the facility and a no-interest $50,000 deferred renovation loan, forgiven at the rate of $5,000 for each year the company stays here. The company spent about $500,000 to renovate the building, Brown said.