SOUTH DEERFIELD — South County EMS will soon have a new ambulance to replace an older and outdated model that is more than 15 years old.
As fiscal agent of the ambulance service — which means the town provides logistical services — the Select Board, based on the EMS Board of Oversight’s recommendation, approved a purchase contract for a new PL Custom ambulance during a meeting Wednesday night.
“This is the contract to purchase that ambulance as approved by the board of oversight at that meeting,” said South County EMS Director Zachary Smith before the Select Board unanimously voted to sign a purchase agreement for the vehicle.
The ambulance, built by PL Custom Body and Equipment Co. on a 2016 Ford F450 Series chassis, costs about $270,000. Smith said it will be purchased for under the $285,000 appropriated by the oversight board for a new ambulance in fiscal year 2017.
Smith said it will take between five and seven months for the new ambulance to be built and outfitted before it is put into service.
The ambulance service’s Board of Oversight unanimously recommended that the service purchase the new ambulance during an oversight meeting last month.
“They were tasked with something chiefly concerned with the safety of staff and patients,” Smith said Wednesday about the search process, enacted by a search committee of South County EMS staff tasked with finding a replacement ambulance.
At last month’s meeting, before the board approved the purchase, David Zamojski, a search committee member, presented details and specifics about the ambulance. Speaking on behalf of the search committee, he recommended the service move forward and purchase the truck.
“It’s designed for us to sit down, and do all our work sitting — everything is within reach,” Zamojski said regarding design specifics of the new rig. “You don’t have to get up.”
The ambulance also has six-point harnesses on each seat, he added, an automatic lift to raise the stretcher, and four-wheel drive capability — that could come in handy in more rural areas of South County.
“We’ve looked at many trucks and driven many miles of travel, this is the truck we’ve decided on,” Zamojski said, adding that the ambulance is designed to allow paramedics and EMTs adequate space to help patients while sitting down. He said important equipment is within arm’s reach, and bumps in the road are minimized by an ambulance-specific “air hydraulic system.”
Smith said the search committee did a great job, and found the ambulance offered at a reduced price through a Texas bid-list community buy-in agreement with the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
“This is open to any other municipality or nonprofit anywhere in the country,” Smith said about the buy-in agreement, adding that Houston-Galveston was selected from a few other municipalities participating in the program because it was the best deal.
According to Smith, the new ambulance will replace the oldest model in the service’s fleet, made in 2001.