CLB Makes Decision On Ambulance Service

The Cocke County Legislative Board met last night in their regular monthly meeting. One of the issues the board tackled was the ambulance contract for the county. Two weeks ago, the CLB met and did not have a quorum to reach a decision between the current ambulance service, Priority Ambulance and a new bidder AMR. Priority last October, bought out First Call who had been under fire in the county due to long wait times. Those wait times improved after Priority took over, but there have still been some complaints by the public. The AMR bid was cheaper than the Priority bid, but contained less services, mainly AMR’s bid would use 911 operators to dispatch the ambulance service. After much debate, a motion was made by CLB member Forest Clevenger to accept the bid from Priority. Their bid was higher cost, but Clevenger pointed out by the time the county spent money to counteract the less services contract from AMR, the bids were basically the same. That motion carried and the board voted to retain Priority Ambulance as the service for the county.

Also business attorney Jeff Green presented an offer of $75,000 for a plot of land the county owns near the intersection of Hwy 25-70 and old US 411. However, it was pointed out by commissioner Clevenger that the property will be worth more money once development starts at that end of the county. Commissioner Smith made a motion that the issue be tabled till an appraisal could be done.