Hot Springs to receive new ambulance in 2014

HOT SPRINGS – The town of Hot Springs recently purchased a new community ambulance to help benefit the town.

Mayor Randy Woods traveled to Orlando, FL to tour the plant and ensure that the company’s building specifications were of a high quality.

Recently, the company Hot Springs originally purchased the ambulance from was bought out by a parent company called Allied Specialty Vehicles. The plant houses four different ambulance manufacturers: Road Rescue, Wheel Coach, Mark and McCoy Miller, all brand name ambulances.

Woods was concerned not knowing whose specifications the ambulance was going to be built to.

Because of the concern, Allied Specialty Vehicles flew Woods to the plant and showed him the product line.

“The plant was very impressive. Everything used to be hand cutout and now everything is computerized,” said Woods.

The current ambulance of Hot Springs is slowly reaching the end of its life cycle and with that ends the era of “hand built” ambulances. Woods explained that because all of the doors and holes in the ambulance were built by hand, each part had its own unique formatting. Due to this, it was difficult to fix and order parts because many of them had to be custom made to fit.

The new automated, computerized process will ensure a smoother process of repairs.

“Now you can call the factory and they can make you a door off of the blueprint,” said Woods.

The town will be selling the old ambulance on ambulancetrader.com once they receive the new one. The current ambulance has 113,000 miles on it and is 13 years old. Woods explained that once an ambulance reaches around 100,000 miles it is typically replaced.

Woods also explained that in rural areas such as Sanders County, the wear and tear on the vehicles is more substantial than in other places due to the rough roads. The hazardous conditions can cause wiring problems, hardening of rubber gaskets and worn out body joints.

The new ambulance comes at a cost of $126,000, an amount that will be easy to pay.

Due to the financially solvent ambulance service, Woods explained that once the check is cashed, the account will still have leftover money. Part of the monetary success of the program is due to in house billing. The town expects to receive its ambulance in March of 2014.