Moody County commissioners will wait to decide on a new ambulance until after the first of the year, board members said Dec. 19.

At the Dec. 5 meeting, commissioners had said the county could began advertising for bids for a 2018 demo ambulance and planned to open those bids Jan. 3. The county will keep its 2013 ambulance that has about 100,000 miles on it and will get rid of the 1996 model.

Since that meeting, the county discovered a buying group, called Savvik Buying Group, it could use to purchase an ambulance and rather than ordering a demo model, which wouldn’t include a new box, ambulance and county staff would rather get an entirely new ambulance. The proposed box would be a 2003 model and in the past, older boxes haven’t been as automated as newer ones, plus the county has experienced problems such as leaking and creaking, said Mark Bonrud, paramedic for the county.

The choice of a completely new ambulance would still allow the county to stay within it’s $180,000 budget through the buying group, said Marty Skroch, assistant to the commission.

“The bids are all here. We don’t have to do specific bids because this Savvik group has already run it,” he said.

The trade-off is that the ambulance wouldn’t be able to get a power load system on the new model but would be able to add that later with grant money, Skroch said.

For now, that would work, but eventually the power load system would be a good idea, Bonrud said. The load system costs about $35,000, and the state has pledged a $3,000 grant to help pay for it.

“It’s something we’d like to get,” he said. “It’s easier on your body, loading and unloading patients out of an ambulance.”

An ambulance could be ordered and available sometime early in the year, he said.

The commission plans to vote on the purchase as early as the Jan. 3 meeting.

In other business:

• The commission approved the purchase of a new Dodge Charger for $23,997 plus the cost to fit it for law enforcement use, such as lights, a cage, radio and radar. The vehicle will replace a 2013 Charger driven by Deputy Mark Lee.
• Commissioners saw a view from the 14 new security cameras installed at the courthouse, including four cameras outside of the building.

The old cameras, which were in most of the courthouse offices and the courtroom, crashed about six months ago, Skroch said. At the same time, the state opened up a grant process that gave the county $10,000 toward the purchase of a new system, which ended up costing the county about an additional $2,000.

The cameras record and save video for 30 days. They also are much clearer than the old cameras so officials would be able to identify people, such as vandals, Skroch said.