
The Rapid City Legal and Finance Committee penned an agreement with a KOTA Territory college Wednesday; for a paramedic training program.
The Rapid City Fire Department currently has 43 paramedics on staff, and now they're hoping to make it 51. The city's agreement with Western Dakota Tech has been around for about three years; before that paramedics were traveling to Sturgis for training.
Over all tuition and fees will cost the department $30,000.
EMS Chief Jason Culberson says the need for paramedics in KOTA Territory is huge. "It's very important for us to have paramedics in our system," said Culberson. "We did about 13,500 calls this year and out of that 10,900 were EMS calls which a paramedic and ambulance responded to."
Classes for the eight emergency medic trainees start January 7th and continue for eleven months.