BEATTY -- The Beatty Ambulance Service has been in need of volunteers for some time now.

Emergency medical technicians from the surrounding areas, such as Pahrump, Crystal and even Tecopa have been helping fill in the schedule so the service could continue to operate.

Only two EMTs residing in Beatty are consistently responding to calls for service, and those calls total over 250 per year.

Thanks and gratitude go out to those who have been answering the calls on a consistent basis, but unfortunately there are just not enough trained volunteers stepping up to be able to keep the service up and running.

The Nevada Revised Statutes and Nevada Administrative Code are very specific as to what is required to have an ambulance service operating within a town, and Beatty is in a critical situation.

The representatives from Nye County Emergency Services who oversee the Nye County Ambulance Service, recently met with the Beatty Town Board to provide an update and look for suggestions as to how to save the service.

Over the years, Beatty Ambulance Service and Nye County have offered many opportunities for citizens to become trained and involved.

The Nye County ambulance coordinator has recently offered two courses in Beatty to again try to remedy the staffing problem. Only two people signed up for the medical first responder course, and two enrolled in the EMT basic course.

This lack of attendance in either course is a cause of great concern and has resulted in this effort to again make residents of Beatty aware of a very serious situation.

Beatty is critically located within the county.

Not having a local ambulance service would be a dynamic loss on many fronts. The citizens of Beatty need to recognize that now is the time for individual involvement -- attend the training and save this much needed service.

The apparatus and supplies are in place and competent, trained individuals are need to answer the call.

The time has come for those who enjoy the rural lifestyle to ensure the ambulance service does not cease to operate.

Call Brent Jones 775-751-4278 and/or Patty Winters, 775-482-7244 to discuss this matter further.