In 1974, the people of Cherokee Village Arkansas, recognized the need for an ambulance service. October of that year, 12 people were appointed by Desiree Meyer, president of C.V.P.O.A. and charged with organizing an ambulance service.

   Cherokee Village Ambulance Service began operations in March of 1975. Fundraising efforts purchased the service's first fully equipped ambulance, and by the second year they had purchased a second ambulance. In 1976, the Quorum Court contributed $2000 for the service to cover the north half of Sharp County. The company in the beginning answered 15 calls per month, by mid-1980's they answered 50-60 calls per month, and now the service responds to over 300 calls per month.

   Originally the service was operated by volunteers consisting of EMT's, drivers and first responders. They started out volunteering for a week at a time then later went on to do 48 hour shifts. Training for the service began to grow as well. The first EMT class in Arkansas was taught in Ash Flat in 1974.

   Bob Booth was hired on to manage CVAS on Dec, 1st of 1986 and served for 18 years. He helped the company achieve many licenses and was an amazing asset to the service. in 1991, the service became an Enhanced BLS service. Then two years later the service upgraded to Intermediate level licensing. Then in 1995, CVAS became a fully paid Paramedic level service. The company was honored as Ambulance Service of the Year for the state of Arkansas in 1991, and the next year was named National EMS service of the year.

     In 1999, the name of the company was changed to Spring Rive Paramedic Ambulance Service. The bases grew to include not only Cherokee Village but also Ozark Acres and Cave City. The ambulance service had gone through a rough patch in 2006 through 2013. After many changes approved by our board we were able to rebuild, and we expanded our fleet to 8 ALS units.

  By 2016, the company has added a fourth base. The bases are located in Cave City, Cherokee Village, Ash Flat and Hardy. Each base is staffed with a Paramedic and EMT for a 48 hour shift. Our old business office in Cherokee Village has been converted into a fully functioning classroom and what now houses our supplies. Our new office in Ash Flat has been remodeled and is more spacious. Board and foundation meetings are now able to be held in the conference room at the new office.

Our company is comprised of a board of 10 diverse people of the community that meet once a month to make decisions and plan for a budget. Our foundation is also comprised of 8 different people that organize fundraizers and PR for the company. In 2015 Bart Schults was appointed General Manager of the company. Jennine Eash came back to SRPAS in 2014 to head up the billing office with the official title of Business Operations Director.