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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: December 9, 2003 <br />OoOeZ) - �zoo�- " 6S <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. IR -� <br />SUBJECT: Second Reading — Non - Emergency Private Ambulance Franchise Application <br />DEPARTMENT: Emergency Management PUBLIC HEARING: (Y /N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Nick Waters, ext 3030 <br />Articles of Incorporation (NEMTA) <br />Franchise Application Form <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732 -8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968 -4501 <br />Durham 688 -7331 <br />Mebane 336- 227 -2031 <br />PURPOSE: To consider for second reading the awarding of a non - exclusive franchise to <br />provide non - emergency ambulance transportation services to NEMTA, Incorporated of Chapel <br />Hill, North Carolina (NEMTA is the incorporated name of Non - Emergency Medical Transit <br />Authority of the Carolinas, a new corporation based in Chapel Hill). <br />BACKGROUND: Under the terms of the County's "Ordinance Regulating Emergency Medical, <br />First Responder, and Rescue Service and Granting of Franchises and Contracts to the <br />Operators in the County of Orange" (hereafter, referred to as the "ambulance franchise <br />ordinance "), persons who wish to engage in the service or business of transporting patients <br />within Orange County must apply to the County for a franchise. The Emergency Management <br />Department received and reviewed an application for a franchise to provide non - emergency <br />basic life support transportation submitted by NEMTA, Incorporated of Chapel Hill. Staff also <br />met with the officers of NEMTA and investigated the information provided in the franchise <br />application. <br />The BOCC considered and unanimously approved the awarding of the franchise to NEMTA at <br />the Board's October 21, 2003 regular meeting. The item is now being brought back to the <br />BOCC for second reading and approval based on statutory requirements. <br />Currently, Johnston Ambulance and AAA Transport are the only private services franchised to <br />provide non- emergency ambulance transportation within Orange County. Based on information <br />provided by staff and discussion at the April 2, 2002 Commissioners Meeting (when AAA <br />Transport was granted a franchise by the Board of Commissioners), a local entrepreneur has <br />been pursuing the establishment of a non - emergency transport service based in Orange <br />County. The resulting enterprise, NEMTA of the Carolinas, was granted an ambulance provider <br />license by the state in July 2003. According to the owner of NEMTA, over the past year, several <br />institutions in Orange County that are frequent users of ambulance transportation services have <br />encouraged him to pursue this enterprise, including a franchise to allow the in- county <br />