News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Fentress County Commission will apply for a USDA grant to replace heart monitors for the ambulance service.
The grant will pay up to $50,000, with the county having to match those funds for a total of $100,000. It would cost a total of $315,000 to replace all seven of the heart monitors currently in use. EMS Director Tony Maxfield said he currently has two heart monitors on loan to meet their needs, but those will have to be returned soon. Commissioner Kim Davidson said the focus right now should be replacing those.
“We’re not without heart monitors,” Davidson said. “We have them they work. This is to get us ahead of the curve. The technology’s improving. We have working heart monitors that are fine, but there is new technology coming and this is to get us with that.”
Director of Finance Tyler Arms said the county would not likely receive the enough money from the grant to cover all seven monitors, a price tag of some $300,000.
“Odds are we’re just going to get fifty,” Arms said. “If I put in for this for a half match, it’s a shot in the dark, probably not going to happen, but if we put in for $100,000, odds are it’s going to happen. We’ll pay fifty, they’ll pay fifty.”
Maxfield said in March the heart monitor prices will go up 18 to 20 percent. He said he will need all of them replaced soon.
“We need seven,” Maxfield said. “We run six trucks out of station 1 and one truck out of station 2. Then, we have a spare. We’ve got the eighth truck, but we’re going to keep it as a spare.”
Davidson asked if that was the only place to get the heart monitors if the price increase was too high to purchase the rest of the seven later. Arms said it is a manufacturer’s increase across the board. She said it might make most sense to budget annually to replace the units so it becomes a regular expense.
Arms said he will have to look into whether the county could use ARP money to match the grant. He said the grant normally has a quick turn around, and the county should know if they get the grant soon.
