About six months after beginning talks, The Newton County Board of Supervisors has approved a new ambulance contract with CareMed EMS.
In the new contract, CareMed will be penalized $100 per day per advanced life support ambulance that it stays below the three ALS truck minimum. The final language was approved at the Jan. 20 board meeting.
This is in response to repeated issues, in which the company failed to keep at least three ambulances in the county at all times.
Earlier this month, the 911 office released its report for December. There were 12 days where CareMed did not have 3 ALS trucks available during any of a 24-hour period, meaning CareMed would have owed $1,200 back to the county.
While CareMed is staffing several basic life support trucks in the county to help with the call volume, those trucks do not count toward the number of required ALS trucks.
The contract was approved unanimously.
In other business, county administrator Steve Seale announced that COVID-19 pay is no longer available to county employees who contract the novel coronavirus. Seale said the special sick leave expired on Sept. 30, 2021. Any employee that has to miss work due to COVID-19 must use their own sick leave.
Mississippi Association of Supervisors is also seeking scholarship applicants for its annual scholarships. Applications are available in the county administrator’s office. The deadline is Feb. 1.
The county is also switching its part-time employees to direct deposit. Seale said many checks have not yet been cashed or deposited and they have had to reissue checks to part-time employees.
Madison George was approved to attend dispatcher training in Philadelphia Feb. 15-18.
The supervisors also agreed to declare two printers in the chancery clerk’s office as surplus.
The board also had until Monday to make any changes to the East Central Planning and Development board. The supervisors did not appear to want to make any changes.
