News

Tenn. Provider to Keep Ambulance One More Year

Gary Nelson

01/24/2012

Jan. 23--CROSSVILLE -- The Cumberland County Commission approved extending the life of one of its ambulances in order to save money and to get full use from a vehicle that was under mileage.

The decision to pass the resolution was made as an exception to the county's own rules when it comes to replacing vehicles on the fleet for the Cumberland County Emergency Medical Service.

Commissioners discussed the subject of extending the life of ambulance unit No. 463 for one year at great length during Tuesday night's county commission meeting.

"It scares me to make exceptions like this. We could make a mistake, and if another company were to come in here, it could cause a problem if we were to enforce the rules on them and not on ourselves," said 1st District Commissioner Harry Sabine.

"Well, Chief Dodson was very emphatic about it when he came to me. He was emphatic that this would probably be the only time he'd make an exception and it was because the mileage was so low and 'cause it's four wheel drive and has only been used in bad weather," said 2nd District Commissioner Nancy Hyder.

Hyder chairs the Emergency Services Committee, which also approved extending the life of the unit for one year.

Roy Turner, 7th District commissioner, and paramedic with Cumberland County EMS, said, "It's only going to be used for out of town transports. It's not like it's going to be on the front lines being used on daily runs by any means. It just didn't make sense to get rid of it. It only has 80,000 miles on it."

The unit is a 2000 Ford equipped with four-wheel-drive. According to a resolution that the county commission previously approved, EMS units are to be retired after 10 years of age or 225,000 miles. Unit 463 was a unit mainly used only when there was snow or bad weather.

"This will only effect the Cumberland County Ambulance Service because there is no other service in the county at this time ... There would be a one-year grace period and we'd come in compliance of the resolution," Cumberland County Fire Chief and EMS Director Jeff Dodson said.

Carmin Lynch, 9th District commissioner, said he would like to offer a friendly amendment to the resolution and strike a stipulation that the unit be recycled and transferred to the recycling center and be further operational after its use by the ambulance service.

Lynch also wanted a paragraph stricken from the resolution that stated if the extension of the life of unit No. 463 is not approved, then funding for a new EMS be allocated from the fund balance.

"Those would require approval by the budget committee and full county commission and don't belong in there as a whereas in a resolution ... I'd like to amend the resolution to delete those two," Lynch said.

Terry Carter, 6th District commissioner, made the motion to approve the resolution and accepted Lynch's amendment. Carter's motion was supported by David Hassler, 3rd District commissioner.

The resolution was approved in a 15-3 vote.

Voting against resolution 01-2012-1 to extend the cycle of EMS ambulance unit 463 for another year, were commissioners Sabine, Mike Harvel, 7th District; and Jeff Brown, 8th District.