LAWRENCE COUNTY - DECEMBER 21, 2022 - The Lawrence County Council in their meeting Tuesday night approved $700,000 of American Rescue Plan Funds to be used for the new ambulance contract.
The contract is for IU Lifeline to provide dedicated 911 service to Lawrence County with one Advanced Life Support Ambulance, Two Basic LIfe Support Ambulance and a Advanced Life Support Vehicle (Squad) which was approved by both the Lawrence County 911 Board and the Lawrence County Commissioners in early December.
Dustin Gabhart asked the county council to approve the ARPA funds to help with two years of the four-year contract. The first year of the contract is $300,000 with the remaining three years at $400,000.
This is the first time Lawrence County has entered into a contract for ambulance coverage.
However, over the last four years the county had two ambulance services on its 911 system.
The Lawrence County 911 Board or the Lawrence County Commissioners did not require either IU Lifeline or Seals Ambulance Service to have a valid 911 contract to be dispatched to emergencies in the county. Those ambulance services only had contracts to provide ambulance services to their respective hospitals.
During the last four years, the county was left without an ambulance coverage on numerous occasions, waiting on out of county ambulances to arrive at medical calls and accidents.
City of Bedford and county volunteer fire departments have waited as long as 45 minutes for the ambulances to arrive. On occasion Bedford Police Department transporting patients to the hospitals in their police cars due to extended response times from ambulance services.
" This has been needed for a long time," said Scott Smith president of Lawrence County Council.
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