In early June, the community was notified that the EMS in Penrose was being suspended on July 4 and that the local volunteers would not be available to respond to calls. Penrose no longer has enough volunteer EMTs needed to provide quality medical response and Florence EMS is minimally staffed (but still providing medical service when possible). The communities affected are Penrose, Florence, Rockvale, Coal Creek and Williamsburg.
The number of volunteers has dwindled for both EMS and Florence Fire Protection District (which includes all the above-mentioned communities), which means fire protection could also suffer! Both EMS and Fire should be considered in this decision to prevent fire protection suffering the same fate - with no firefighters to provide coverage.
Efforts are underway to provide some temporary EMS; however, the only long-term solution is a mil levy increase approved by the voters of the five residential areas. The general election on Nov. 2, 2021, is the best opportunity to have ambulance service restored in 2022.
If the mill levy is not approved in the next General Election, local EMS will not be available until about the middle of 2023!