Allen County commissioners purchased a new ambulance for countywide service Tuesday, taking the lower bid of $185,985 from American Response Vehicles, Columbia, Mo. Delivery will be in 120 to 150 days.
Money for the purchase will come from the county’s ambulance fund, which contains about $700,000. In its arrangement for Iola to provide countywide service, the county agreed to purchase a new ambulance every other year.
The new unit will be stationed in Iola, and with four-wheel drive capability, Fire Chief Tim Thyer said it would be made available for long-distance transfers whenever winter weather with ice and snow made the feature important.
Ambulances stationed in Humboldt and Moran carry most patients to metropolitan hospitals, with Iola’s being third in line during 24-hour periods beginning each day at 8 a.m. Two trips in consecutive 24-hour swings fall to Humboldt and Moran. When either is out of pocket, Iola-based ambulances are dispatched.
A signed contract from Remco, a Kansas City company that will demolish the old Allen County Hospital, arrived Tuesday. A building farewell is planned in ACH’s lobby from 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 25, with a demolition-start ceremony the next morning.
Commissioners signed off on a payment of $80,000 to the Murray Company, prime contractor for Allen County Regional Hospital, which left $25,000 being held in abeyance for any final upgrades.
Iola Administrator Carl Slaugh said the old hospital site being used for construction of a G&W Foods grocery would be focus of a joint meeting of Iola council members and county commissioners Aug. 17, starting at 6 p.m. in Riverside Park’s Community Building.
Commercial zoning of the site allows for a grocery, but rezoning will be required for construction of apartment complexes, Slaugh said. Discussion also will center on a traffic study, to determine such things as entrances, exits and street structures.
Commissioners approved a $4,725 contract with Iola’s Boren’s Roofing to put new roofing material on the L-shaped canopy at the north entrance to the courthouse. Ron Holman, maintenance supervisor, said he was eager to have roof work completed ahead of a proposal he planned to make in the spring for repainting the courthouse.
County buys new ambulance
