Budget Delays Overton Ambulance Director Search

Overton County’s search for an Ambulance Director is on hold while the county works to finalize this year’s budget.

County Executive Steven Barlow said they received applications for the position over the past couple weeks. Barlow said he is currently reviewing the applications they received, but there is nothing else he can do until the budget is passed.

“I’m just kind of waiting on the budget to pass to be able to go over with them a little more in depth of what the pay’s going to be,” Barlow said. “‘Cause we had put in for a raise for ambulance services and right now we don’t know what that raise is going to be.”

Barlow said that once the budget is approved, he will select a candidate to hire and they will have to be approved by the county commission. He said he hopes the new ambulance director will stay with them for longer than their past two directors.

“We’re just hoping to find a director that will be here for a while to build relationships with the public,” Barlow said.

The application window officially closed on Monday. Barlow said the new director also has the potential to improve the morale of the employees in the ambulance service.

“When you go through a couple different directors in a year, the morale goes down of the employees,” Barlow said. “But being able to have somebody to set up roots means a lot to the employees, and it means a lot to the public as well.”

Barlow said he will continue to research the candidates by reviewing their records and their training, as well as continuing to communicate with them until the budget is passed.

“It’s in a holding pattern, but I’m still working on them during this holding pattern if that makes sense,” Barlow said.

Barlow said they received one submission each from candidates in Overton County, a neighboring county, and Nashville.