SHERBURNE - Citing escalating hardships of rural EMS, Chobani has extended a helping hand to the Sherburne Fire Department in the form of a new ambulance to cover the village and the department's three protected townships.

The $150,000 four-wheel drive apparatus was unveiled at the Chobani plant Tuesday. Sherburne officials say it’s a welcome relief to replace the village’s existing ambulance which they say has simply become too costly to maintain.

“When we began this fund drive, the bumper literally fell off our ambulance,” said Sherburne Mayor William Acee. “Repairs were running about $10,000, so we knew it was past time for a new ambulance.”

The village immediately reached out to the community and Chobani for assistance and, despite being a “matter of life and death in some cases,” said Acee, they didn’t know if they would be successful.

“Chobani came through in a big way,” he added. “This generous gift will allow us to service the plant and its neighbors with a modern new vehicle.”

The ambulance will serve the roughly 2,500 residents of Sherburne, Smyrna and Columbus, in addition to the 750-plus employees at Chobani’s New Berlin plant, which is also covered by Sherburne EMS.

“At Chobani, commitment to community has always been extremely important to us and something that we value,” said Nate Gundlach, Chobani’s vice president of operations. “Our communities are full of not just our employees, but our families and our friends; so it’s always been a very important piece of Chobani to be very engaged and involved in our communities. We’ve always felt our communities and our commitment to them isn’t just our right, but our obligation.”

With an ambulance purchase off the backs of village trustees, focus can now turn toward another pressing issue: personnel. The Sherburne Fire Department staffs eight part-time EMTs. But its ability to attract and retain personnel has become increasingly difficult over the years as rural communities shift from volunteer-based EMS to paid staff.

“EMS is not a money making proposition,” said Acee, noting that COVID response caused Sherburne’s EMS to run in the red last year. Plans now are to use saved ambulance money for personnel instead. According to him, money saved will better allow the department to pull in and train personnel as Sherburne competes with other paid EMS providers in nearby Oxford, Norwich, Greene, and a new county-run service - all of which draw from the same pool of EMT candidates.

“It’s a worrisome process,” he added. “Around the country, there have been some creative ideas brought forward to remedy the problems of EMS. The Village of Sherburne and its partners are constantly brainstorming out-of-the-box ideas to solve EMS difficulties. We think we understand the issue, and we think by utilizing innovative ideas that we can solve this problem.”