Ambulances to Share Space with Anoka’s Emergency Services

[Anoka County Union, August 28, 2009] Under a new lease agreement approved by Anoka City Council, Allina ambulances are now dispatching out of the city’s public safety center on Harrison Street. Early this month the council approved the space trade, which saw Allina moving into the police and fire headquarters in exchange for the training provided to members of the Anoka-Champlin Fire Department. According to Fire Chief Charlie Thompson, the value of that training is nearly $15,000 for the final quarter of 2009 and all of 2010. Typically Allina’s education department has been hired to train firefighters for their initial first responder and EMT capacities along with continuing education. But the biggest benefit of the Allina move is not one Thompson can put a dollar value on. “It’s the partnership that we’re about to go into with an entity that’s been in the city for many, many years."