Arab Fire Rescue
Gets New Ambulance

Arab firefighters Brody Potter (seated) and Nick Marion (standing) check out the patient compartment of the new $132,000 ambulance that will be placed into service in approximately 30 days.  Photo by Dwight Hayes

January 23, 2008
Arab Fire and Rescue will be getting a new ambulance in about 30 days, and not a minute too soon.  With two of the department's four vehicles in the fleet currently sidelined with continuing major repairs, the Arab City Council voted Monday night to declare an emergency in order to purchase a demo unit from Peach State Ambulance Co. of Georgia.  Arab Fire Chief, Ricky Phillips and AFR Captain Tim Bailey brought the unit to the meeting for the council to see along with a financing plan.  The council will lease the vehicle for five years at a cost of $29,000 per year

After painting and final outfitting this ambulance will become the Arab Fire & Rescues most modern ambulance.                                   Photo by Dwight Hayes

According to Phillips and Bailey, the aging fleet of ambulances is becoming increasingly difficult to keep in operation and costs to repair are mounting.  One of the two units currently out of service was expected to cost more than $1,000 to repair.

The cost of a new chassis and remount of an old patient care compartment costs approximately $95,000 and could take 6-9 months according to Chief Phillips. 

Phillips said the department has a 1996 model with 51,000 miles, a 97 model with 170,000 miles, a 199 model with 176,000 miles and a 2002 model with 80,000 miles.  The patient care compartment (box) on the 2002 model is currently on its third chassis.  Phillips estimated that the patient compartment has over 400,000 miles of service.  Bailey said the average life expectancy of a unit is three years.  Phillips said he would like to get the department on a rotation of buying a new ambulance every three years.

Phillips told the council that the service ran 2,044 calls in 2007 with a collection rate of 82%.  According to Phillips the department collected approximately $500,000 in ambulance fees during that period.

The ambulance is being supplied by Peach State Ambulance Co. from Georgia.  It is a demo unit with 4,000 miles on the odometer.  Company officials will return the unit to their plant for final painting and fitting with expected final delivery to be approximately 30 days.  After the unit is inspected and certified by the Alabama Health Department's EMS Division it will be placed in service.  Bailey is already working on scheduling of the inspection in order to expedite the process.

The council voted unanimously to declare an emergency in order to lease the unit without having to go through the normal bid process.  Alabama state law allows a municipality to bypass the bid process when the council certifies that an emergency situation exists.

While the vote to lease the ambulance was unanimous, Council member Russ Elrod said he was voting yes because he believed it was the right thing to do given the City's current course of action regarding providing ambulance service to the community.  He told Mayor Frank Lee Cox that, "I strongly want to encourage the Mayor and Chief Phillips to setup a dialog with Marshall Medical Center North officials regarding the future direction of ambulance service".  Cox said that he had recently contacted Marshall Health System CEO Gary Gore and that a meeting was being arranged.

After the meeting Elrod said that he wants to hear a proposal in regards to the possibility of Marshall Health System providing ambulance service to Arab the same way they do Guntersville.  "I don't know that I would agree to their proposal unless certain guarantees were in the agreement but I want to open a dialog and discussion and try to reach an agreement",  Elrod said.  He said he felt that without the discussions, "the City and the taxpayers were not getting their due".