Lake Chelan Health breaks ground on EMS/Admin building

CHELAN - Lake Chelan Health Hospital broke ground on the new Lake Chelan Health Admin/EMS/Garage on September 30 with community members, hospital staff and city officials looking on. Helping to shovel a little dirt on the new building site were EMS director Ray Eickmeyer, Hospital Board member Lori Withrow, Hospital CEO Aaron Edwards, Hospital board chair Jordana LaPorte, Rep. Mike Steele, Hospital COO Shawn Ottley, Hospital board member Doug Gibson, and Hospital board member Len England. Special speakers for the event were Shawn Ottley, COO of the hospital, Dean Gable of Hill International, Matt Pulick of Graham Construction general contractor for the new building, Ellyn Freed of Forte Architects, Aaron Edwards, CEO of the hospital, Jordana LaPorte, board chair and 12th District Rep. Mike Steele.

The new building on the Lake Chelan Health Hospital campus will house administration and is a permanent home for the EMS and will feature for the EMS shared indoor/outdoor living spaces, office spaces, sleep rooms and bathrooms for on-shift staff, ambulance garage and dedicated training areas for both staff and community education.

Planning for the almost 18,000 square foot building began in October of 2023 when the architectural and engineering team was awarded the job and scoped to collaborate with the Lake Chelan Health internal team to conceptualize the highest and best use for programming, site placement and overall massing for the new home for the EMS team.  In February of 2024 the architectural and engineering team tackled the site research, existing conditions and multiple large scale iterations needed to establish the most appropriate location for for the new project build site, proper orientation and programming through extensive client collaboration. The pre-construction phase was Sept. 2024-2025, when Graham Construction and Hill International joined and augmented the team, which initiated the formal pre-construction phase of the project. The design, construction documents, permitting, cost estimating, bidding and subcontracting were completed during this phase.

Cost for the project is $12M, with 75% of that from the State of Washington, acquired by 12 District State Rep. Mike Steele. Steele is the ranking member of the Capital Budget in the House of Representatives.

Since the sale of the old hospital on Highland Avenue, EMS has been leasing space from the new owners and presently resides in the double stacked modular buildings, which previously housed the hospital/clinic business office, accounts payable, payroll and human resource departments. They also lease the three bay garage that houses three of their six ambulances.  Ray Eickmeyer, EMS director told those in attendance that this is the sixth space for the EMS in its 50 years of service in the Lake Chelan Valley, which was celebrated in July.

EMS Community Programs

Lake Chelan Health  Community Programs are: CPR, First Aid & AED Training, Paramedicine Program, Paratransit Services and Event EMS standby.

Lake Chelan Health EMS team members, include full-time and per diem paramedics and EMTs, located in Chelan, Manson and Stehekin, with a coverage area of 1,100 square miles. They have seven ambulances, one squad vehicle and two Paratransit Vehicles. An ambulance was placed in Stehekin this summer.

 You can visit the Lake Chelan Health website, lakechelanhealth.org, for construction progress and updates. They are also working on having a live video camera link accessible on the EMS Building Program page: Lake ChelanHealth.org/ems-building project.