By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Carter County Ambulance Board has been working through sickness to serve the county.
“We are holding our own,” Director Tim Woods told the board. “But there has been a lot of sickness going around.”
Woods said that in spite of sickness that they are doing well, but compared it to moving forward two steps, then being forced to take one step back.
“We aren’t losing ground,” Woods said. “But we aren’t progressing as fast as I would like.”
Woods also reported that the vehicle that was damaged by hitting a deer has been repaired and is in service. The repairs were economical, he said, and the vehicle looks close to new. Currently all the ambulance service’s vehicles are operational and there are no large maintenance issues on the near horizon. Vehicle plans for the future could include renovating a truck the board already owns and adding it to the active fleet.
Woods told the board he would, “like to maybe wait a year,” and scatter out expenses over different budget years.
“That way we can get a truck, then skip a year before we get another truck,” he explained.
That would be his preference, he said. But there are growing maintenance issues that might necessitate acting sooner than he would prefer.
One of those issues that might become critical is on a 13-year-old vehicle (Number 7 Engine) that has a heating and cooling system that is a separate, self-contained unit. The company that manufactured that unit has gone out of business, and most local companies find it difficult to continue repairing, mainly due to the lack of available parts. The system also is problematic to replace because it is roof mounted, and the ductwork is built into the walls of the ambulance ‘box’.
In finance news, the board reported an income for the Month of February of $264,810.46. This was $55,690.46 more than budgeted, and was $149,844.83 less than the same period of the previous year. Expenses for the month of February were $310,588.85, which is $27,787 more than budgeted, and $62,398.77 more than the same month the previous year.
Payroll expenses were 66.60 percent of the year’s expenses. Payroll expenses for the month of February were $250,430.97, which was $20,430.97 more than budgeted and $51,154.95 more than the same month the previous year. Unscheduled overtime was 1.7 percent of the budget.
The Board also discussed changing the frequency of their scheduled meeting to bi-monthly rather than monthly. Any changes could not take effect until later in the year because some meetings, such as the June meeting where the board will vote on a budget, cannot be changed. Meeting frequency will be revisited sometime after the June meeting, but it is expected that the months of August and September will be skipped, with meetings then resuming on a bi-monthly schedule in October.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
