The meeting that was scheduled to be held on Tuesday regarding the ambulance contract and litigation has been moved to a later date.
The reason for the move is regarding concerns brought up by citizens about the timeline of the posting of the meeting. One citizen showed concern that the meeting hadn’t been on the County’s website for over 48 hours. After deliberating the concern with Board president, Jim Niemann, and the attorney representing the County in the litigation, Chris Koester, the Effingham County State’s Attorney, Bryan Kibler advised the Board to reconvene the meeting at a later date.
Additionally, many concerns were brought up to the Board on Tuesday. One citizen showed concern that Abbott Ambulance was hiring employees and posting to social media that they had been awarded the Effingham County contract when the final contract hasn’t been approved yet. Another concern brought to the Board was that they were contracting with one ambulance company. This citizen was concerned on what would happen if this ambulance company failed to deliver on the agreement made with the County.
Attorney Chris Koester addressed these concerns by first commending the tremendous teamwork of Altamont Ambulance and Abbott Ambulance in working together during these settlements. He stated that since its not an overnight transition, Abbott Ambulance is working under the faith that they will be officially awarded the contract and have been preparing for the transition. He also addressed the concerns over what would happen if Abbott Ambulance fails to deliver on their contract. According to Koester under the new contract if the ambulance service fails to “live up” to their end of the contract, the service can be let go immediately or within 90 days.
The Board will reconvene this meeting on June 2nd at 10:00am where they will discuss and vote on an agreement with Abbott Ambulance and an agreement that is between Abbott Ambulance and Altamont Ambulance.