Daviess County’s new ambulance service will take over at 12 a.m. July 15. Daviess Community Hospital’s Keith Miller and Ted Cline told the Daviess Commissioners Tuesday that the new service will have ambulances based in Washington, the Cannelburg fire station and at a new structure to be built in Odon. Until the new Odon building is ready, the ambulance will be based at Parkview. Wayne Schuetz, who has operated Southwest Medical Ambulance Service for years and is retiring, thanked the Commissioners for the seamless transfer of responsibility.
The Commissioners continued to hear about delays with construction the Government Center. On the recommendation of project owner’s representative, Mike Schapker, the Commissioners voted to remove the installation of the stone ply exterior from the contract with Jasper Lumber and to contract with another firm for the exterior of the building. Schapker told the Commissioners that he had received a schedule update from Jasper Lumber on June 25, saying the interior of the building would be finished by the end of July. Schapker said that lack of work in the last couple of weeks that deadline is unlikely to be met. In other construction business, the Commissioner agreed to purchase property at the corner of E. Fourth and Herron, for $62,500 to add to the planned parking area for the Government Center.
In other business the Commissioners agreed to a proposal to reduce the County’s interest payments and redeem $1.65 million of the County’s 2011 economic development bonds. The Commissioners also approved a no-cost contract to place emergency and police radio transmitters on two of Washington’s water towers. The Commissioners also agreed to evaluate a request from 4H to help build parking lots for the 4H grounds expansion project.