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MOUNT VERNON — Myrt Bowers remembers a time before the establishment of the Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service.

“This old nurse remembers when we didn’t have ambulances. We had funeral directors," said Bowers, speaking last week before the Mount Vernon City Council. “If you had an accident or something that needed a gurney, it was the funeral director who brought you to the emergency room.”

She added that emergency response has evolved by leaps and bounds since she began her nursing career in 1960, thanks in large part to the growth of paramedic training programs and the creation of dedicated ambulance service agencies.

The result of that evolution was clear: quicker emergency response ti

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