Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: December 9, 2003 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~'-~ <br />SUBJECT: Second Reading -Non-Emergency Private Ambulance Franchise Application <br />DEPARTMENT: Emergency Management PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Articles of Incorporation (NEMTA) <br />Franchise Application Form <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Nick Waters, ext 3030 <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 anon-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), alocal entrepreneur has <br />been pursuing the establishment of anon-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, aver 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 />