ROGERSVILLE — The Hawkins County 911 system is already receiving revenue from every law enforcement agency in the county, and now it wants the county’s two ambulance services to chip in $5,000 each annually.
Hawkins County 911 Board member Robert Palmer told the board Wednesday he met with Church Hill EMS board of directors President and Chairman Fred Arnold Tuesday. Palmer said he was told by Arnold Tuesday that Church Hill EMS has no intention of paying the $5,000.
There’s been no “official” response to the $5,000 bill from either Church Hill EMS or Hawkins County EMS.
On Wednesday, 911 Director Gay Murrell told the board that if the ambulance services don’t wish to pay the fee, the state has said her dispatchers can begin transferring emergency 911 ambulance calls to each EMS service’s respective in-house dispatchers and let them conduct their own emergency dispatching.
Before such drastic action is considered, however, the Hawkins County 911 Board voted Wednesday to invite the board of directors from both EMS services to a meeting set for Oct. 10 at 3 p.m. to discuss the fee.
Hawkins County 911 has operated in the red for the past three fiscal years, and earlier this year it was declared a financially distressed system by the state.
Read the expanded version of the report in the enhanced electronic or print edition of the Times-News.
