SIDNEY -- The Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce celebrated the return of Sidney-based ambulance service this morning.

The Chamber and Sidney Regional Medical Center's EMS program held a ribbon cutting event celebrating a community-based Emergency Medical Services program in Sidney. EMS Director Shannon Odiet took part in the ribbon cutting and explained the service.

"In cooperation with the county, and the city, we were able to set this service up in record time. We feel that it is a very high quality service for the community," he said.

Odiet credited the quick establishment of an EMS program to the team effort of the hospital staff and the City of Sidney and Cheyenne County. He said the new ambulance service is "something the community can be proud of."

"All the work, from all the department heads, at SRMC, all the staff at SRMC, that helped get this up in record time was just nothing short of amazing," he said.

Establishing an EMS service with SRMC's name on it took more than a year, according to SRMC CEO Jason Petik.

"About a year ago, Regional West was pulling some of the EMS services out of some of the communities that they were serving. We were fortunate enough that Morrill County had an ambulance service at that time. They stepped forward to provide that service for the year. That is who has been providing the service for the last year. And that then has allowed us time to put things together at a transition point so its not a crisis, and so we can have a nice smooth transition with Morrill County, working with both again the City and the Council, the hospital involving our medical director Dr. Smith to make sure we got all the I's dotted and T's crossed," he said.

Odiet said SRMC took over 911 medical services at about noon on August 31.