As anyone in Guilford County Emergency Services can tell you, it’s been a very long time coming.
A very long time coming indeed.
For nearly two decades, the county’s Emergency Service staff has been stressing the need for a new county facility for the maintenance of Guilford County emergency vehicles and to meet other needs of the department, and, on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 11 a.m., Guilford County Emergency Services, along with the Guilford County commissioners and others in the community will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to publicly present Phase 1 of the new Emergency Services facility at 1205 Pepperstone Drive in Greensboro.
It was just after the turn of the century that emergency staff began citing the need for a facility such as this one that is opening up in late 2020 – and county staff is very high on the promise of the new maintenance and logistics center.
“The facility will revolutionize the way that Guilford County Emergency Services units are stocked, maintained, cleaned, stored, and deployed,” the county’s announcement of the ribbon-cutting states. “Warehouse and equipment space will increase by a factor of ten over the present location. The new facility can serve as a hub for receiving and distributing supplies during current and future disasters. The building is constructed to Risk Category IV specifications intended to withstand significant severe weather and can shelter up to 20 ambulances if needed.”
The design of the building is meant to streamline the deployment of resources and to make Guilford County Emergency Services more efficient.
No one is happier about the new center than Guilford County Emergency Services Director Jim Albright.
“This facility has been many years in the planning – and we are so excited to see it come to fruition,” he said this week.
Albright added that the only thing that made it possible was the support of past and present county commissioners, county managers and county staff.
“This building is a major step for Emergency Services in Guilford County,” he said.
I’m thrilled that they’ve finally built the Gilbert Black Maintenance Facility on a scale that he deserved. I’ll miss the old place on 29 but it was time.
By the way, nice lettering on that unit.