UPDATE: Pleasant Bay EMTs change mind, still in operation
After a morning of uncertainty, Pleasant Bay officials have confirmed they are still operating in Franklin County for the time being.
At Monday morning’s Franklin County Commission meeting, employees of Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service took off their company shirts and resigned on the spot from their positions after learning their company had not received the recommendation to be the county’s sole ambulance provider.
Moments after Probate Judge Barry Moore read the letter of recommendation from the county EMS Committee listing Shoals Ambulance as the committee’s choice, the Pleasant Bay employees, who were standing in the back of the room and near the door, began taking off their Pleasant Bay T-shirts.
Several employees yelled remarks such as “good luck” and “y’all can have it” as some threw and some handed their shirts to Martha Malone and stormed out the door.
After the meeting, however, Elzie Malone, owner of Pleasant Bay, said he was able to negotiate with these employees to return to work and his company is still operating in Franklin County.
“I think they’re just tired of being told they’re not good enough,” Malone told the commission.
“They’re fed up with all of this and that’s understandable. They hear the commission saying they want to do what’s best for the citizens, and they are tired of being told they aren’t good enough and they are frustrated.
“We have been in Franklin County for 16 years, and now there’s going to be a ‘good ol’ boys’ contract, not a government contract, signed that will put us out of business. I just don’t understand it.”
After the mass exodus of Pleasant Bay employees during the commission meeting, commissioners and other officials moved their focus to making sure the county had adequate emergency coverage if Pleasant Bay was no longer going to operate.
Blake Hargett, the operations manager for Shoals Ambulance Service, made a call during the meeting to have an ambulance immediately dispatched to Franklin County to provide services.
Hargett said he made a call to the state licensing board to get approval for an emergency license to operate in Franklin County, but Hargett said his request was denied because the state had received a call stating Pleasant Bay was still in operation.
“We believed the county was in an emergency situation with the employees from Pleasant Bay appearing to quit at the commission meeting, but if they have re-negotiated and are still in operation, then they are capable of operating in the county until our contract is signed.”
Even though the commission approved, by a 3-1 vote, to accept the EMS Committee’s recommendation for Shoals Ambulance to receive the contract and be the county’s sole ambulance provider, Shoals Ambulance will not begin operation until the contract is signed.
The contract between Shoals Ambulance and the county is expected to be signed as soon as attorneys for both sides have it approved. Moore said that is expected to take place later this afternoon.
Hargett said his company was going over two “minor” issues in the contract.
