Walker County officially approved a change in ambulance service from Puckett EMS to CHI Memorial.  Commissioner Shannon Whitfield said the county will extend a million dollars up-front to CHI, so they can buy the five new ambulances required. 

During the life of the 4 year contract, that amount will match the annual 250-thousand dollar subsidy the county had been paying Puckett to operate four ambulances.

The extra ambulance is expected to cut response times to 12 minutes in urban areas and 18 minutes in rural areas of the county… and CHI will assign 44 employees to the Walker County operation.  The new CHI-Memorial Ambulance service will start February 1st.

WQCH