NATCHEZ — Adams County supervisors opened three proposals Monday to take over all emergency ambulance services in the county.

Calvin Butler, president of the board, said the county is looking for one ambulance service to assume responsibility for all 911 emergency calls in the county.

Currently, two private ambulance services respond to 911 calls on a rotating basis — American Medical Response and Metro Ambulance Service.

Other ambulance services would still be allowed to cover non-emergency calls within the county, such as transporting patients. Butler said the change in ambulance service structure stems from concerns over slow response times.

The change, he said, would allow the supervisors to hold the provider accountable.

“We want to make sure we’re getting the service we need,” Butler said.

As the system currently works, dispatchers alternate emergency and non-emergency calls to AMR and Metro in rotation, Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said.

“They go back and forth all day,” Bradford said.

Having one service responsible for all emergency calls, he said, would allow the county to hold the ambulance service answerable for response time.

“The only real difference is we could hold the provider to its response time quota,” Bradford said.

AMR, Metro and Rural Rapid Response submitted proposals to the supervisors, who took the bids under advisement.

Rural Rapid Response proposed a payment of $52,504 for its emergency services.

AMR and Metro offered to provide emergency response to the county at no cost to the county, on the condition that whichever service chosen was the only provider.

Butler said the supervisors would like to review each proposal with the provider in person, ensuring that the service met all the needs of the county.

This interview with the three companies, Butler said, would be at a public meeting, though the date for the meeting is not yet known.

Butler said he would likely hold a specially called meeting in the coming weeks to speak with a representative of each company.