Polk County commissioners voted Thursday night, October 15, to move forward with the CareMed contract for ambulance service and to rent Building C at Copper Basin Medical Center to the company.
Meeting in regular session at the Copper Basin Community Center in Ducktown, commissioners voted to give County Executive Robby Hatcher permission to sign the contract and approved a deal Hatcher had negotiated with the company for rent.
CareMed will pay the county $1,050 a month and the City of Ducktown $350, the same as the other tenants in the buildings on the hospital property. Hatcher told commissioners he had already collected a deposit and first month’s rent.
Commissioner John Pippenger said CareMed, “did get state certification” to operate in Tennessee. When the company was awarded the contract, they did not have that certification.
Also, CareMed has not yet provided the number of ambulances called for in the contract.
Pippenger said the new ambulances necessary to fulfill the terms are expected to arrive Thursday, October 22. He said the county had expected a three-week delay in CareMed meeting the contract terms.
American Medical Response (AMR) had given the county a 90-day contract extension when an agreement could not be reached to extend their contract as it expired at the end of July. When commissioners voted to go with CareMed at their September meeting, AMR pulled out at midnight September 30, the end of those 90 days.
Hatcher told commissioners that, unlike AMR, CareMed bills for its services the first of every month and had already billed for October, the monthly amount of $60,000. When asked if the bill would be paid in full, since the service has not been fully provided with the required ambulancess, Hatcher said he had signed the check but had not yet sent it.
Under the terms of the contract, CareMed is to provide two 24-hour-a-day ambulances, one on each end of the county, two 12-hour-a-day ambulances, one on each end, and a Quick Response Vehicle (QRV) that is to move between the East and West sides depending on where it is needed.
Hatcher said, unless told differently by the commissioners, he would not release the check until all the promised ambulances were in place in the county.
At the end of the meeting, Commissioner James Woody made a motion that the commission’s rules be suspended in order to appoint the county attorney. He said that item had been left off the agenda.
That motion failed when Commissioner Dewey Esquinance voted against it.
Hatcher reminded everyone that the annual Trick-or-Treat event will be held on the square at the courthouse in Benton Saturday, October 31, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
County Clerk Jackie Rogers said the annual Christmas Tree Lighting, along with all the usual festivities, will be held at the courthouse December 5.