Gabriel Aleman said this week that he is glad to be able to serve his community until 2017 by providing the city and county with continued 911 emergency ambulance service.

Aleman is the co-owner of Beeville’s Angel Care Ambulance Service, along with Mickie Ochoa.

Ochoa was at the Jan. 26 City Council meeting along with local attorney Sid Arismendez when the council voted unanimously to extend the current contract with the company for another five years.

The contract was set to expire in 2012.

“I think we have a very good relationship with the Beeville Police Department and the Bee County Sheriff’s Office,” Aleman said.

Police Chief Joe Treviño agreed with that assessment, saying Tuesday that “If we have any problems or issues that come up, they are quick to resolve them.”

Aleman said his company took over the EMS operation for the city and county back in November 2006, when the company that had the contract at the time, Southerncross Ambulance Service, asked to be released from its agreement.

The next year the City Council and Commissioners Court voted to extend the contract until 2012.

Aleman and Ochoa agreed to provide the service at the existing rate that was being paid to Southerncross when they first took over the contract.

Two years later, in February 2009, the company was able to negotiate a new contract price.

“We’re planning on some changes,” Aleman said Monday. The company plans to buy some new ambulances to replace some of the units in its seven-unit fleet.

“I want to get some box units to replace the vans,” Aleman said. Although a paramedic or an emergency medical technician can provide the same level of service in a van that can be provided in a larger ambulance, Aleman said the public perception is that an emergency ambulance unit should be in a larger truck.

Angel Care has grown as a business since the company was awarded the EMS contract and Aleman said the firm’s reputation for service has helped promote that growth.

“We have 31 employees,” Aleman said. Eight of those are certified paramedics who are licensed to provide everything from Advanced Life Support to the highest level of mobile medical service, Mobile Intensive Care.

Eleven of the company’s employees are trained emergency medical technicians or intermediate medical technicians.

“When we took over the contract, we always vowed that we’d never leave our city and county without the two ambulance units required by the contract, and we haven’t,” Aleman said. “As for our contract promises, we’ve always been 100 percent.”

Aleman said he also has been intent on seeing to it that most of his emergency medical team is made up of people from Bee County.

He and Ochoa had a state-of-the-art classroom set up years ago to train emergency medical personnel. He said the company tries to provide at least one EMT class a year and sometimes more.

“I want local people,” Aleman said. Employees who come from other cities and counties often leave for new jobs after a while. People from Bee County tend to want to stay here.

“For us, it’s just a dream come true, to serve our community,” Aleman said.

Fortunately the community has been willing to help Angel Care realize that dream. Aleman said the addition of a new $20,000 radio system at their offices allows them to provide backup communications for the entire county in the event that the 911 radio systems fail at the police department and sheriff’s office.

Aleman said Bee County’s Emergency Management Coordinator David Morgan helped obtain the federal funds necessary to acquire that radio system for Angel Care.

Some significant developments have been realized in providing emergency medical services to the far reaches of the county. The Beeville Volunteer Fire Department, Pettus VFD and Papalote VFD all have first responder units now that can get to an emergency scene quickly and start providing needed attention to victims.

“We work with them all the time out in the county,” said Chief Deputy Alden Southmayd of the relationship between Angel Care and the sheriff’s office. “They do a great job.”

Southmayd said he thinks Angel Care is a top-notch company and he was glad to hear they got an extension on their contract.

“We’re always trying to do something to give back to our community,” Aleman said. Ochoa, for instance, has been heavily involved in Operation Save Our Babies, an organization that is trying to get parents to properly strap their youngsters into vehicles.

Recently, Assistant Police Chief Kenneth Jefferson thanked the company at a City Council meeting for spending $7,000 to purchase two ticket writing devices that the BPD is using now.

The company also has assisted less fortunate people during the holidays to pay for groceries, gifts and other needs.

Aleman said he intends to assure Bee County residents they are in good hands when it comes to emergency medical service.