NATCHEZ — The Adams County Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to approve an exclusive 6-month contract with American Medical Response to become the county’s sole ambulance service for emergencies.

AMR beat out competition from Metro Miss-Lou Ambulance Service, which has served the county on a rotational basis with AMR for the past several years, and Rural Rapid Response to become the county’s exclusive EMS provider for 911 calls, though two supervisors dissented.

After a period where representatives from each provider were present for open discussion, each company then made a presentation without the two other providers in the room.

The EMS system has come under fire by public officials and the public alike for poor response times, something AMR Natchez Operations Manager Tim Houghton addressed Wednesday.

“(That) is why we’re approaching the point we are right now, where the county’s come to a point where they say we need a single provider that’s going to consistently deliver 911 services,” Houghton said.

Houghton said the rotational system is undesirable for AMR, which pays set expenses on ambulances no matter whether or not they are actually rolling. Becoming a sole provider, Houghton said, would allow whoever attained the contract to “put their best foot forward” and improve their services.

“We have requested this for years and years, and we’re ready to do it,” Houghton said. “We’re ready to show that we can do it, and we’re not just going to say it — we’re going to deliver.”

AMR promised 85-percent satisfaction of response times 9 minutes and 59 seconds or less within city limits and 19 minutes and 59 seconds or less out in the county.

Houghton also touted AMR’s technological prowess, such as the advanced equipment the company uses to transmit EKG data, which monitors electrical activity of the heart, to doctors who will receive the patient at the hospital.

When asked by District 3 Supervisor Angela Hutchins how often the company changes its GPS to remain current, Houghton said AMR updates its satellite mapping yearly to ensure accurate responses.

Metro owner Jim Graves gave the meeting’s second presentation, also pointing to the problems in the past with the slow response times to calls.

Graves, however, said the company has been “embarrassed” at times when they responded to a call expediently but only after AMR relayed the call long after the original 911 call had been made.

Graves mentioned an incident from 2016 when a Cathedral School football player waited approximately 20 minutes for an ambulance after he suffered a blow to the head and neck area. AMR initially received the call, which was redirected approximately 10 minutes later to Metro the due to a high call volume. Graves said although Metro responded to the call within 8 minutes, the situation was but one of many examples over the year when emergency responders as a whole “dodged a bullet.”

Referring to Houghton’s earlier point about cost, Graves said he does not believe that should have any effect on whether an ambulance service can respond promptly to a call.

“I don’t see the point that the other side (made) about the cost of putting ambulances up,” Graves said. “You don’t care about that and the person that’s in trouble doesn’t care about that.”

Metro assured the same response time as AMR within city limits but of 18 minutes and 59 seconds or less outside of city limits, also with a guarantee of meeting those parameters at least 85 percent of the time.

Graves — formerly AMR’s Natchez general manager — also blamed past issues on the fact that AMR’s dispatch center is located in Gulfport, as opposed to Metro’s dispatch center stationed locally.

“If you’re going to run 911 in Adams County, in my opinion you need to be here,” Graves said.

Houghton said earlier the dispatch center’s location is inconsequential and does not inhibit their ability to receive calls and dispatch ambulances.

Rural Rapid Response owner Tyler Blalock wrapped up the presentations, citing his belief that the county should give a new provider a chance.

“I also feel like the other companies have had a year’s time since (problems were) addressed to improve … and they’ve chosen not to,” he said. “I’d like the opportunity to do a better job, is why I’m here.”

Blalock assured response times of 12 minutes or less within city limits and that amount plus an additional 2 minutes per mile for calls outside city limits.

“Response times that I gave you are calculated by the worst-case scenario,” Blalock said. “Not on what I think I can do 85 percent of the time, but what I think I can do 100 percent of the time.”

Rural Rapid’s proposal was also the only that included any sort of charge to the county: approximately $52,500 for a dispatcher who Blalock said would have worked in the county’s E-911 center housed in the Adams County Jail.

At the end of each company’s presentation, District 4 Supervisor Ricky Gray asked representatives if they believed the county could achieve an effective way to operate with two ambulance providers simultaneously.

Houghton said “no,” while Graves and Blalock each said they had no issue with that type of operation. Graves, however, did concede that having a sole provider would likely be “easier,” when asked by Hutchins.

After officials discussed the presentation, District 2 Supervisor David Carter moved to award AMR a 6-month contract as the exclusive ambulance provider for emergency calls.

“To me, AMR’s got the most ambulances that are going to be on call, they’ve got the most technology, they’ve got the top medical director,” Carter said.

The vote passed, but Hutchins and Gray dissented.

Both supervisors questioned AMR’s ability to respond promptly to service calls in past years, including an incident that E-911 Dispatch Supervisor Catherine Latham said occurred Sunday morning.

Latham said AMR was called to a residence where an inhabitant was suspected to have been experiencing a heart attack. AMR personnel, Latham said, would not enter the facility until a sheriff’s deputy arrived, but a fallen tree had created an unforeseen circumstance where no deputies could readily respond.

Houghton said AMR keeps records of places where some sort of violence formerly occurred and explained that personnel would not enter those residences without a law enforcement officer present, but Hutchins said she was disturbed that an ambulance could be sitting outside the residence of a heart attack victim and still not be able to provide treatment.

The contract was approved for six months pending the formation of a rigid emergency plan by Adams County Administrator Joe Murray and Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford.

Board attorney Scott Slover initially said the contract could go into effect June 1, but Gray and District 1 Supervisor Mike Lazarus said they wanted the contract to be implemented much sooner.