Bartholomew County joins city in contract for CRH ambulance service

Bartholomew County and Columbus have agreed to continue a contract with Columbus Regional Health to provide ambulance services in the community at a cost of just over $868 thousand dollars a year.

The county commissioners signed off on the three-way agreement yesterday.

Local resident Mike Lovelace protested the decision. He argued that instead of simply agreeing to the terms of CRH, the county should instead open up the contract for other bidders possibly saving taxpayers money.

Commissioners said that they appreciated Lovelace’s view. But they said it is an essential service and there needs to be uninterrupted services to the community. Commissioners President Larry Kleinhenz pointed out that in previous years, the county had sought bids for the service and chose not to go with the low bidder. Within a year that low bidder had gone out of business.

Commissioner Tony London said that Putnam County had the local hospital win the bid for ambulance services, then the hospital went bankrupt. That led to the county itself having to buy the ambulance service out of bankruptcy and provide services paid for with a public safety tax on the community. London said that approving the contract now will allow time to consider other solutions.

Under the new contract, CRH will add another ambulance to the service, with five instead of four. The hospital will also be looking into where to best house the ambulances, providing the best service to the community.

The hospital, county and city are each paying a third of the contract and the County Council has already budgeted the funds for next year. The four-year contract goes into effect January 1st.