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JACKSON – Northampton County EMS Director Paul Nowell presented a request to fix up an old ambulance at the Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Nov. 7. The commissioners quickly approved the request without much discussion.

“The ambulance that we’re talking about has been out of service for a number of years,” Nowell explained. “What we want to do is take the box off the back and put it on a new chassis.”

Along with remounting the old ambulance, it will also be refurbished and then added back into the county’s fleet.

Nowell reported that he’d tried getting bids from five different companies, but because of supply chain shortages for chassis and computer chips, he was only able to obtain bids from two companies who could complete the work.

He recommended approval of the lowest bid from Emergency Transportation Associates at $119,550.23.

County Manager Julian Phillips noted that the funds for the remount/refurbishment were already included in the budget.

Board Chair Charles Tyner asked if Nowell felt confident with that company.

“We’ve never dealt with this company,” he replied, but noted that they’ve done work with other county governments and the references checked out. “I’ve done my due diligence to check that company out. I couldn’t find anything [wrong].”

Commissioner Kelvin Edwards then motioned to accept the bid, and Commissioner Joyce Buffaloe added the second. The vote passed unanimously among the four commissioners on Monday night. Commissioner Geneva Faulkner was unable to attend the meeting.