Commissioners Approve Ambulance Application

Putnam County Commissioners approved a resolution allowing County Mayor Randy Porter to apply for a community development block grant Tuesday.

Porter said the county would use the grant to purchase a new ambulance. Porter said the grant application is due in February and he expects the county would learn if it was awarded by this summer or early fall.

“We bought a fire truck last time and we closed it out and so we’re eligible again for a new one,” Porter said. “We passed a resolution, the commission did, that allowed me to apply for the grants back a year or so ago without having to come to the commission. Well, CDBG won’t take that, they’ve got to have this specific resolution passed. So it’s only applying for it.”

The grant includes a nineteen percent match. Porter said recent inflation has made it so that the county would not be able to afford a fire truck like it did with this grant two years ago.

“It’s got to be for the ambulance or it could be equipment that goes inside the ambulance, heart monitors and those kind of things.” Porter said. “We could look to apply for the full amount and then take and use it for equipment that goes in the body of an ambulance.”

Porter said getting a single new ambulance can make a real difference for the county’s EMS department. Porter said the county has several ambulances but they replace one each year.

“If we can get this grant to replace one of them then that’s tax dollars, local tax dollars, that we can use for something else or save,” Porter said.

In other business, the commission approved Porter’s reappointments to the Payscale Committee and the Health and Safety Standards Board. Commissioners also appointed three people to the agriculture extension committee and approved a recommendation to add Whispering Oaks Lane, Canoe Way, and an extension of Medlin Road to the county roads map.