After months of planning, the Lawrence County EMS is getting ready for the second round of bids for its Rock Hill station.

It will be built on the Rock Hill schools campus and the building will also be used by the school district for a school-based health clinic.

Earlier in the year, bids were requested for the construction of the new EMS station. But when the bids were opened, the construction costs were double the amount that was advertised. So, the blueprints were modified to lower the estimated amount for construction and a request for a second round of bids went out. Lawrence County EMS also looked at possible other locations than on the school campus.

They decided to stick with the campus location when, prior to the second-round bid request, the Rock Hill School District reached out to the Lawrence County Commissioners and proposed adding a school-based health clinic for their campus to the new EMS station.

“With several months of exploring these opportunities and with the uncertainty of a permanent location for the clinic/EMS station it was decided to proceed with the original plan and location of this EMS station,” said Mac Yates, the Lawrence County EMS executive director of operations.

He said that it was important to get an EMS station in the Rock Hill area since that was what was  promised when they asked the taxpayers to support an EMS levy last year.

“There is really no good coverage out there,” he said, adding that calls for service in Rock Hill are done with ambulances stationed in Ironton. Once it is completed, the Rock Hill EMS station will cover an area from Rock Hill to the Jackson County line. “We’ve had a lot of growth and need another ambulance to cover an increased volume of calls. This will help alleviate the wait time for calls and provide better service to the citizens in Elizabeth Township, Washington Township, Decatur Township.”

The projected construction cost is $625,000.

The request for bids has gone out and the commissioners are expected to announce who won the bid on Sept. 29. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of April 2020.