Meeting in regular session last week, the Lewis County Fiscal Court investigated the issue of ambulance service in Lewis County.

Mike Adkins, the owner of Countywide Ambulance Service, and Lori Caldwell, the local manager, both attended the meeting.

Lewis County resident Kermit Jordan raised a question with the ambulance service at last month's meeting. At that time he said his grandson had been involved in an accident on January 11 and the ambulance was 46 minutes getting to the scene.

Caldwell reported that regarding that particular incident, the company's records show that the ambulance arrived 18 minutes after the dispatcher in Portsmouth, Ohio, received the call.

She explained that the Adkins family had just taken over the service on January 1 and in the transition period some confusion did exist. The Vanceburg personnel weren't sure if they were supposed to respond to the call or if another ambulance would, she said.

Adkins said that currently no dispatch is located in Vanceburg because the communications license had expired prior to his purchase of the service and he has to re-apply for that license before he can put up equipment to communicate with the ambulances.

Third District Magistrate Milt Stanfield asked, "Do you foresee putting a satellite office in Tollesboro?"

Adkins pointed out that the fees for transporting patients had been reduced considerably. Prior to his ownership, the fee was $700 per run, he said. That has been lowered to $400. An emergency run is now $175 each way.

Judge Executive George Plummer stated that most neighboring counties had ambulance services owned and operated by local government. Several years ago, Lewis County residents overwhelmingly voted down a proposed tax to provide that service so the community continues to rely on privately-owned, for-profit ambulance services.

Adkins informed the court that he wanted to upgrade a 1995 ambulance owned by the city and put it back in operation. That would provide one more ambulance available for operation in the county.

Jordan still wasn't satisfied with the information supplied by Adkins and expressed the opinion that the service as it now stands cannot adequately provide coverage for the county. He also stated that he does not support adding a tax to provide the service.

Jordan also inquired about the time the fiscal court holds its meetings. He asked why the court did not hold its sessions in the evenings so more people could attend.

Plummer explained that the issue had been dealt with before and that the meeting time had been changed on several occasions.

Meeting in regular session last week, the Lewis County Board of Education began with three stories of success from programs in the school system.

Superintendent Maurice Reeder Jr. reported that the JROTC unit had undergone a major inspection and score 499 our of a possible 500 points. This inspection is held once every four years.

Reeder said that the school was already proud of its JROTC program and with the near perfect score on the major inspection, ". . . we're even more proud."

Forman pointed out that for the next two years, Johnson will work in this district and ARSI will pay her salary. Johnson will spend half her time in Lewis County and then travel to other districts to help them in science improvement.

Reeder reported that school report cards have been issued to the parents of every Lewis County student. The report card is mandated by the state and informs the parents on how each school in the district is doing.

The money will be used to make repairs to the building and will include work on the foundation, interior and exterior of the facility.

Commissioner Jody Lassiter, of the Department for Local Government, approved the grant on the recommendation of the Buffalo Trace Area Development District.

In addition to the foundation and interior of the structure, work will be done to repair damages to the building from a nearby fire last year that resulted in damage to vinyl siding on the building.