CHENOA - Faced with a staffing shortage, Chenoa ambulance officials have hired a Fairbury-based regional ambulance service to provide full-time emergency medical services for the city, officials said Wednesday.

The South East Livingston County Ambulance Service, or SELCAS, has provided part-time ambulance service for Chenoa from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays since Jan. 1, said Jim Hargitt, EMS coordinator for SELCAS.

But the staffing situation has gotten worse, and the Chenoa service was becoming unable to meet state standards for ambulance crews.

On Nov. 12, SELCAS formally became Chenoa's primary ambulance service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Officials say residents likely will not notice any change in their service beyond the fact that the ambulances are coming from Fairbury, about 10 miles east of Chenoa along U.S. 24.

"I don't know that they'll see a big difference," Hargitt said.

SELCAS now has access to some of the Chenoa service's equipment, and Chenoa volunteers are free to sign up with SELCAS, which had a full-time paid staff during the days on weekdays and volunteers at night and on weekends, said Dale Kridner, president of the Chenoa ambulance board.

SELCAS is licensed at the emergency medical technician-intermediate level, which requires at least 450 hours of training. It is a higher qualification than EMT-basic but not as high as EMT-paramedic.

The Chenoa service had been licensed at the EMT-basic level when SELCAS took over the new role last week, Kridner said.

Kridner said Wednesday he didn't know exactly how many volunteers the Chenoa service had on active duty, but Hargitt said a basic-EMT-level ambulance would require two basic-EMT-level crew members unless there is a staffing waiver from the state.

SELCAS now covers about 425 square miles along the U.S. 24 corridor, stretching from Chenoa in the west to Ford-Iroquois County line in the east. The northern and southern boundaries are five to seven miles on either side of U.S. 24, Hargitt said.

SELCAS is contracted for the 24/7 service until the end of 2009.

Kridner declined to disclose the financial arrangement between the Chenoa ambulance service, which is its own taxing body, and the nonprofit SELCAS. Hargitt said his service's ambulance runs would be subsidized by the Chenoa service inasmuch as "we don't wind up doing that at a loss."

Chenoa officials said they'd monitor the situation over the coming months and then determine if there was an interest in re-starting their own ambulance service after 2009.

That decision could be based on how long it takes to train new volunteers at the basic-EMT level, which requires 130 hours of training. Three hours a night two nights a week would take about six months, Hargitt said.

"We hope we can have one back up again," Kridner said.