By John Estridge
Union County Commissioners had an unusual meeting at an unusual time in the world Friday morning, September 4.
With this world dealing with a pandemic where there is social distancing and masks. And everyone had to try to deal with the social distancing in the commissioners’ small meeting room. Because of that, commissioners and auditor Cheryl Begley had to direct traffic. There were three major topics during the 93-minute meeting: ambulance bids, the final numbers on previous health insurance bids and discussing the plans to move all the voting, for the Tuesday, Nov. 3 general election, to the 4-H building in Liberty.
There were so many people wanting to move into the small meeting room, they were only allowed to come into the room, in waves, according to the topic of the moment. While waiting, the other masked people stood in the second-floor hallway within the historic courthouse.
First were the ambulance bids.
Spirit, the current ambulance service in the county, and Reid Health put in the two bids at the Aug. 21 meeting. Both were close in dollar value with Reid’s three-year bid coming in at $1.17 million and Spirit’s at $1.24 million or a difference of about $24,000 a year or about $72,000 over the three-year period.
There were several options for the two companies to bid on. And that bred confusion.
Commissioners tabled the bids at their previous meeting, Friday, August 21. Commission president Paul Wiwi said the reason for the tabling was to go over the basic life support and advanced life support systems regarding the two bids. Commissioner Howard Curry said it was also to make sure the commissioners were comparing apples with apples.
At the latest meeting, Spirit President/CEO Brian Hathaway wanted the commissioners to consider the one-year bid option with the county providing the building for Spirit. Charles Hoog, the current landlord of the Spirit ambulance building in Liberty, came into the meeting at that point and offered to let the county lease the building in question for $1.
Using the one-year bid and the county leasing the building for $1, Spirit’s bid was just $1,000 more than Reid Health for the one-year contract, Hathaway said.
Hathaway reminded commissioners of Spirit’s history with the county. Spirit came into the county in 2017 when the county was without an ambulance service. Spirit worked up a quick bid for nine months of service and then won a three-year bid, beginning in 2018. That contract is up at the end of the year.
He also presented several cards to commissioners people signed in support of Spirit. Thursday night, September 3, Spirit held a cookout in the Woodruff’s parking lot, cooking up 300 hamburgers and hot dogs. Hathaway said they received a lot of verbal support at the cookout.
Misti Foust spoke for Reid. She said she is a county resident, and she and Reid have a passion to provide the best service possible to the county.
Commission president Paul Wiwi asked about a Reid ambulance transporting patients to other area hospitals other than Reid. Another spokesman for Reid, Jacob Cox, EMS manager, said it is illegal for an ambulance to take a patient to a facility they do not want to go to. However, if a patient seems to be having a heart attack, the ambulance would only go to Reid, because it has the only cath lab in the area, he said.
Foust said, even if Reid did not get the bid, the company would offer its facility as a home for the Spirit ambulance at no charge. She said Reid wants to help the county, and it is a privilege to serve the county.
Curry said he wished Spirit had put as much work into the bidding process before the bids were due as it has done after the bids were placed with the county.
He said he had to compare products. And he had compared products.
“We had a bid for a product from company one, and we had a bid for a product from company two,” Curry said. “The only reason that was tabled was to compare products. In my eyes, I have compared the products. We all know the dollars.”
“It’s a hard decision,” Wiwi said.
“In my seat, speaking for the taxpayers of Union County, I have to look at the best product for the best dollars,” Curry said. “In doing that, I think we need to vote with the bids as they were presented. I commend the work you (Hathaway) have done. I highly wish it had been done before the bid process. In my eyes, I see the bids presented as presented.”
Curry made the motion to award the three-year bid to Reid Health. Wiwi seconded the bid. Commissioner Tim Williams was not present at the meeting. However, he is a Reid Health employee and had recused himself at the last commissioners meeting.
Both Wiwi and Curry voted for Reid.
Reid will take over on Jan. 1, 2021.
Hathaway said Spirit will continue to give good service to the Union County residents through Dec. 31.