MOORPARK : New Ambulance Station to Open

A new ambulance station is expected to open near Moorpark in a few days, despite one city official’s criticism that it is outside the city.

Pruner Ambulance owner Don Pruner said Thursday a fully staffed station will open at 2201 Olsen Road. The company has provided Moorpark residents with emergency ambulance service from stations in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

The new station, within two miles of Moorpark’s city limits, is expected to trim three minutes off the average response time for ambulances, Pruner said. That would make the average response eight minutes. Ambulances will carry a paramedic and an emergency medical technician.

City officials have been calling for a new station to serve the Moorpark area after noting that ambulances were arriving up to 30 minutes after they were called.

In an interview, City Councilman Clint Harper said the station represents an improvement in service but said ambulances ought to be based within the city limits.

Harper and Councilwoman Eloise A. Brown are scheduled to discuss ambulance service today with officials of Ventura County Emergency Medical Services, the county agency that contracts with the company.

Pruner, the company president, said the station is less than six miles to city hall and the center of downtown. Ambulances arrive well within the 15-minute response time required by the county in the company’s contract to serve cities in the eastern part of the county, he said.