The Valley Emergency Medical Services (VEMS) has a new headquarters in Oxford, which includes a three-bay garage, paramedic training classroom, office space and an employee lounge.
Want to check out their new digs?
VEMS is hosting an open house Saturday, May 19 from 1 p.m to 4 p.m. to show off the newly renovated building at 300 Oxford Road. Saturday’s open house will also give visitors a taste of what the medics do.
VEMS leases the building from Haynes Construction Co.
The open house will include free food and drinks, blood pressure screenings, blood sugar tests, and EKG screenings.
Activities such as bounce houses and face painting will be featured for children.
VEMS Executive Director Robert Pettinella said the open house is a way to ​“introduce ourselves to the community” and show people the services VEMS has to offer.
VEMS is a regional paramedic service for Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton.
The service was founded in 1984. At the time, former President Ronald Reagan recognized VEMS as the first volunteer paramedic service in the region, Pettinella said.
VEMS started with only one paramedic truck.
VEMS currently operates six paramedic trucks, and employs 26 full-time paramedics and two full-time supervisors.
This is the first time in its almost 30-year history that VEMS has had a building to call home.
During its early years, VEMS was based out of Griffin Hospital in Derby.
When it outgrew their space at the hospital, Oxford Ambulance granted VEMS space to use, free of charge.
However, VEMS continued to expand, and soon needed to find a bigger home to accommodate its growing paramedic staff and trucks.
“We have the ability now to continue to grow,” Pettinella said. ​“Our next intention is to service communities outside the Valley.”
Pettinella would not disclose which communities, but said VEMS was negotiating with two towns close to the Valley.
VEMS is the busiest paramedic service in the Naugatuck Valley, according to Pettinella.
VEMS responds to approximately 7,200 calls for service a year — or about 20 calls per day, Pettinella said. This figure has significantly increased since the surrounding cities and towns have become more populated over the decades.
VEMS is leasing the building for $2,200 a month, Pettinella said.
The total amount spent on renovations was $15,000.
Pettinella and several other employees did a portion of the work themselves, saving an additional $8,000, he said.
Besides being the VEMS executive director, Pettinella said he also works as a contractor.
“We are very conservative about how we spend money,” Pettinella said.
One of the new rooms in the building is an employee lounge.
When they are not stationed in their trucks, paramedics can watch television during their breaks or drink a cup of coffee made with the supplied coffeemaker. The lounge also gives employees a small refrigerator for their lunches.
The building also has a paramedic training classroom. VEMS has a full-time emergency medical services instructor and paramedic on duty, and also works with the Joint Hospital Training Council (JHPC) paramedic program in Bridgeport.
VEMS paramedic trucks will be stationed at the new headquarters, and will continue to be stationed in the other Valley towns.