TOWN OF BIG BEND – HELIPAD PROJECT
The Town of Big Bend is actively engaged in developing a helicopter landing pad for the transfer of emergency patients from mobile ambulance to air ambulance.
The Town of Big Bend is serviced by the Rusk County Ambulance service. Rusk County has encountered many hurdles in supplying a qualified ambulance service county wide. RC Ambulance Service is a self-funded, volunteer operated service. Some of the hurdles include the high costs of training, recruiting volunteers, and the retention of trained personnel. The consequence of these hurdles is that the RC Ambulance Service is a basic level emergency medical treatment service which often requires transfer of the patient to a higher-level emergency medical service. Transfers are done between the RC Ambulance and neighboring mobile ambulance services or helicopter ambulance services with a higher level medical emergency service. The Town of Big Bend is located twenty miles from Ladysmith, WI and on the outer border of Rusk County which puts the Township in a remote area. The transfer of patients via an emergency medical helicopter service is becoming more common place.
Emergency medical helicopters currently will land in grassy fields, ball fields, parking lots, roadways, or wherever possible hard surfaces are available to make a safe transfer of the patient. Therefore, the Town of Big Bend strongly supports the development of a dedicated landing zone for emergency medical helicopter service. The safety of our citizens is one of our biggest concerns.
The landing zone is located at the south/east corner of the intersection of US Hwy. 40 and County D. The helipad will be a 100 ft. x 100 ft. blacktop pad located just north of the Chippewa Valley Energy Coop propane storage tanks and just South of County D.
The Town of Big Bend is actively soliciting corporate donations in support of this important community project. Several corporations have already generously committed their financial support but we need additional support.
The project will be completed the spring of 2018. A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned after completion to honor the participants in this great project.
If you would like more information on how you can support this project with your donation, please contact:
Bob DeVoe, Big Bend Town Board Supervisor, Cell: 715-226-0428
Jim Rassbach, President of Rusk Co. First Responders, Home: 715-967-4043
Sandy Rassbach, Big Bend Town Clerk/Treasurer, Ph: 715-868-5775