Haliburton County has a fourth ambulance on the ground.

Staffed 12 hours a day, the emergency vehicle will technically begin serving the county on Sept. 23, but has been running through the summer as part of the county EMS department's summer enhancement program, which helps deal with the area's increased population during the cottaging season.

Stationed at the EMS base in Haliburton Village, the ambulance is staffed 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day and will help the department deal with increasing call volumes and out-of-county transfers.

“Those are the two big ones, and just trying to keep resources here to address local needs and reduce response times,” said EMS director Pat Kennedy.

The vehicle and staffing costs for the year are about $380,000, half of which is covered by the province.

The county's portion was included in this year's budget.

The county has two ambulances – one in Haliburton Village and one in Minden – manned 24 hours a day and another part-time vehicle stationed at the new standby base in Tory Hill which operates from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day.

“Basically it's a floater, it goes wherever the hole is,” Kennedy said.

Call volumes for the summer have been about average but the number of fatalities higher than usual.