Clinton County Fiscal Court, in its first of two call meetings within a week, awarded a bid for a new remount ambulance at the first session last Wednesday morning, February 12 with five of six members present.

Two bids had been received on the ambulance, one from Taylor Made out of Arkansas at $104,383 and the other from Select Tech of Shelbyville, Tennessee in the amount of $91,560.00. Taylor Made’s bid was for a GMC model truck, with a 90-day delivery date and Select Tech bid on a Chevy truck with a 180-day maximum delivery date.

Director of Emergency Services Lonnie Scott discussed the bids with the court, saying they had done business with Select Tech in the past and were satisfied with their service, plus it is a shorter distance from their base of operation in Tennessee–about 150 miles–compared to the company in Arkansas.

After Scott formally recommended the low bidder, a motion to award the bid to Select Tech was made by Magistrate Mickey Riddle and passed by unanimous vote.

Following the approval of the bid, the court briefly discussed ways to finance the purchase of the new ambulance.

A $50,000 grant is already on hand to cover the majority of the cost and Scott noted that another $20,000 in grants would be forthcoming from the Kentucky Board of EMS. The $20,000 includes one grant each from the 2014 funding cycle and another from the 2015 cycle, which will be awarded this summer, according to the EMS director.

Although the grant funding would leave about a $21,000 shortfall, some of the funds could be made up from the surplus sale of the older truck and if necessary, the county may look at obtaining a loan to fund whatever amount is left to fund the purchase cost.

Prior to the ambulance service bids, the court, on a motion by Magistrate Patty Guinn, approved a resolution authorizing the grant application to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to fully fund, at 100 percent, the purchase of body armor for the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department.

Prior to adjourning, the court spent about 25 minutes in closed session to discuss personnel but took no action prior to adjourning.

Following the meeting, Clinton County Judge/Executive Lyle Huff also showed a copy of an email he had sent to Bruce Neely with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet–District 8, on February 9, asking if the county could buy a load of approximately 25 tons of salt, noting the county could not find any for sale.

Currently the county is extremely short on road salt, other than for emergencies, and has been low since the beginning of the year.

Neely’s response the following day indicated they were in the same shape…and in danger of severe shortage if deliveries do not resume, indicating KYTC was conserving the salt they had on hand for use on major highways.

Due to a Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association legislative training day that is to be held this Thursday, February 20, which most court members planned to attend on the regular meeting date, a special call meeting was held in its place on Tuesday morning of this week, February 18. (A separate article on that meeting appears in this weeks issue, beginning on page 1.)