EMS home – No more echo chamber
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The EMS’s new home was more echo-like than homelike — until April 8 when the furniture was delivered.
With the ramp/bridge installed and the insulated skirt around the manufactured building nearly finished, WB Mason delivered the furniture, assembled the pieces and set up the rooms. It took three or four hours.
The “living room” has a stand for the TV, a couch, a table and chair behind the couch and two desks for staff to work. The staffers were delighted to check out the desks and discover that they can be moved higher or lower and can be programmed to remember a staffer’s preferred settings. The kitchen has a table and chairs. One of the three bedrooms in the 1,200 square foot building is now an office complete with desk, chair and storage. The other two bedrooms each have two beds. There are two restrooms and a place for the washer and dryer to be set up. The “decontamination” washer will remain in the older building. There are several pieces of storage furniture in the building, too.
Recently Walmart covered a $500 shopping trip for Tammy Szpyrka, chief of service for EMS, to get all the supplies that will help make the facility a home including dishes, pots and pans, flatware, towels, shower curtains, small appliances, cleaning supplies and more. Mayor Barney Seney, who asked for Walmart’s help, kicked in another $100 to the cause and even helped with the shopping.
Szpyrka said they anticipate adding all those homey touches from Walmart and moving items from the older building soon. Some bricks in the wall in the older building are removed. A door will be installed there when the items in the room in the older building are moved into the new space. Otherwise everything in that room will be covered in dust. The new door will allow staff to go from the new building across to the old building where the equipment will remain. The town used about $88,000 in ARPA funds for furniture, fixtures and a new generator, plus $260,000 in Local Capital Improvement Program funding.
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Top to bottom: Adjustable desk. Living room into kitchen. One of two bedrooms. More photos Wed. night on our FB page. Linda Lemmon photos.