The recently completed Bryan County EMS training center has been named the Forbis-Barrett Training in honor of Gary Forbis and Joe Barrett, two longtime members of the EMS board and Barrett was once the director of EMS.
The sign was unveiled last week and Forbis and Barrett, who did not know about the name, were present for the unveiling.
“Probably about a year ago, we made an executive decision without the board’s approval that I’m telling on myself, so we built this training center for the future of EMS to be able to train and be able to grow our own medics and everything in the future,” said EMS Chief Brian Norton. “The biggest part of our future though comes from our past. There’s two board members that have been on Bryan County EMS’s board since 84. Since 1984, these two board members have been here. They’ve gone through everything with Bryan County EMS from the days where you better cash your check fast and make sure it gets cashed before the money runs out. Before we pay the electric bill and so on.”
Norton said he discussed it with EMS Deputy Chief Nate Toews, and they agreed that the most important thing to do was name it after Forbis and Barrett.
Forbis expressed appreciation that they are a part of Bryan County EMS.
“We’ve provided a great service thanks to Joe and Brian and Nate and all of the staff,” Forbis said. “It’s been a good time for us to see that the accomplishments that we’ve made and provide the new facility and the training center for us to continue to grow and improve.”
Barrett said, “I’d just like to say that as Brian said when we looked through our past, this is a little bit different than the mobile home and parking our ambulances outside which is what we were doing when we first came on this board and come today, to see this facility that is to be admired by everyone in the state. The people I want to thank in addition to our employees is our fellow citizens and taxpayers that made this possible. We’re happy to be served out of the facility that we have for our employees, but we’re also happy to be able to serve the people that made this possible for us.”
Norton thanked Forbis and Barrett and he spoke of the bond approved by voters that allowed EMS to build a new facility and training center.
“I know four years ago when I told y’all I wanted to run a bond and try to build a new building, I saw it on the look on y’all’s faces, you’re like, ‘Brian?’ I thank y’all for trusting in me and believing in us and all of the medics of Bryan County EMS. We appreciate you all’s leadership and getting us here.”
Norton said the training center opened the first Monday in September and they moved into the new EMS station on Memorial Day weekend. Initially, Norton thought the new station would be ready by January, but there were delays with permitting and other things with the federal government and the Oklahoma Fire Marshal’s Office.
Presently, EMS has 32 medics and four ambulances in service 24 hours per day and one ambulance in service 12 hours per day.
“We are fully staffed, we’re busier than ever,” Norton said. “I think our call volume is up about 1,000 from last year, roughly 800 to 1,000 from last year, so the growth of EMS happened a little faster than we thought, so this opening up is going to be a good thing so we can start training more of our medics and hopefully, stay full staffed.”
According to Norton, the biggest improvement with the new station is more room.
“When we were in this old building, we were just on top of one another,” Norton said. “You couldn’t move without saying ‘Excuse me’ around this building and now, everybody has their own individual bedroom. Everybody has an individual workspace when they want to do a report. They have the room to actually do their job and be a little less stressed out just being in the station.”
Gary Forbis, left, and Joe Barrett stand under the sign for the Forbis-Barrett Training Center that was named in honor of them for their more than 40 years of service to Bryan County EMS.
