CEYLON - A loss of workers and missed calls have led the Ceylon Ambulance crew to hang up its keys.

As of Thursday, the small town has only first responders. Any ambulance calls in the area now need to be answered by Sherburn Ambulance or Gold Cross.

"This has been going on for months, years even," said Ellen Kling, an emergency medical technician. "What happened was the Ceylon Ambulance missed a call two years ago. Then recently we missed two calls in one day, so the county dispatch reported us to the state."

The problem comes from the declining population in the Ceylon area. Most people, including those on the volunteer ambulance crew, work outside of town and are not readily available to answer ambulance calls on workdays, especially during daytime hours.

"We were left with either splitting the time with Sherburn and Gold Cross ambulances from 7 to 7, or we could go to first-responder status," Kling said. "We chose the first responders because if we split the time and miss another ambulance call, the state will pull the ambulance for good."

The final decision on the fate of Ceylon Ambulance will be determined in January, after a six-month trial run as a first-response team.

Ceylon is not the first town to have trouble keeping an ambulance crew. The town of Elmore recently lost its ambulance service by state order, and Winnebago is advertising for more EMT help, according to Kling. Other Martin County towns, such as Welcome, Dunnell and Granada, also have a first-response team without an ambulance.

"Daytime shifts are a problem," Kling admitted. "In these smaller towns, it is tough to have the EMTs needed for the ambulance for the daytime shifts."

The move was decided in a Ceylon EMT meeting this week. While Ceylon could have decided to remain first responders only, they chose to try it for six months and attempt to recruit more EMTs in order to have a sufficient ambulance service again.

"This will tax the Sherburn Ambulance and Gold Cross service ability," Kling said. "I feel bad for our community that they've lost this, but we've been asking for help from the community and there was no response. ... We've had less than 10 members, and that's not enough to operate an ambulance crew. At the meeting, we only had six people show up, and two of them were Dunnell people."

There are online classes for people to train and become first responders and EMTs. The costs for the classes are usually picked up by the emergency unit. Kling mentioned that a new group of EMT and first-responder classes begin in August.

"It's a bad thing for Ceylon, but if this is enough to bring some people back, it'd be nice," Kling said. "For now, it is what it is."