The Cole County ambulance based at Jefferson City Fire Station No. 2 on East McCarty Street will be moved to the new Cole County Sheriff's Department to increase response times.
The move is expected within the next month.
On Wednesday, the County Commission approved the move after Ambulance Director Mike Shirts, Sheriff Greg White and County Information Systems Director Dale Gibler were able to find a place for the crew to be based in the jail.
The crew will be housed in what had been a weight room for sheriff's personnel near the master control room at the jail, which leads out to the sallyport where the ambulance will be based.
At one point, it looked like it could cost as much as $10,000 to put in a new area, but the weight room has most everything that will be needed, and now the cost is estimated at $500.
The weight room will be moved to another area of the jail.
In January, for a three-year period of figures Shirts offered, the highest number of calls were in an area from Riverside Drive west to U.S. 54, with 3,219 calls received.
Shirts said moving this ambulance west would help response times in that area.
In October 2012, Shirts said a test with an ambulance at the sheriff's office found that response times dropped from around a six-minute average to as little as two minutes.
This ambulance currently runs from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday and will stay at those times when the move occurs.