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Lowndes County Commissioners addressed citizen complaints against emergency transport and response provider, Haynes Ambulance Service at its meeting Monday, March 10. Appearing before the commission to answer concerns was Haynes Chief Operations Officer Kirk Barrett.

Commissioner Robert Harris questioned Barrett over the lack of regular quarterly reports. When the ambulance service was renewed in 2024, Harris said the commissioners had requested the reports so they could monitor emergency calls and the ambulance service’s response times.

“When ya’ll were last here, [we asked] ya’ll to bring us a run report,” Harris said. “[That was] some months ago and until this day, we still have not received those reports.

“My concern is that the time where y’all are getting a call and actually making in on the scene, there’s a lapse in that time.”

Harris alleged he had received complaints from residents reporting consistently slow response times. The commissioner also described a particular event during which he was with the person needing transport to a hospital and observed first-hand how slow the Haynes response times often are.

Barrett said he was unaware of service delays and asked Harris to provide particular dates for the incidents. Harris could not recall the date of the incident but promised to provide it later. 

Harris also said delays occur when the ambulance stationed inside Lowndes County is responding to a call. When another call is made, citizens often have to wait for another ambulance to respond from Montgomery. However, Harris could not recall dates for these instances.

Barrett said he had emailed requested run reports to Lowndes County Attorney Prince Chestnut prior to the March 10 meeting. According to those reports, Barrett said, average ambulance response times for October through December were 16 minutes and 21 seconds.

Haynes Ambulance dispatchers keep track of call specifics, Barrett explained. Harris questioned whether this information is transmitted to Lowndes County E-9-1-1 offices, but according to Barrett, local dispatchers do not have the CAD system needed to receive call logs.

“I haven’t received any complaints from Lowndes County except for one incident four weeks ago where the current ambulance was on a call, then simultaneously, within 10 minutes, another call came out,” Barrett said. “We had a delayed response to that.”

Barrett said as recently as last week, three or four ambulances were in Lowndes County covering calls at the same time, even though commissioners have contracted with Haynes for only one ambulance to be present.

“If these response times are not sufficient to meet your standards, I’ll be glad to consult with you, and we’ll staff a second ambulance here,” Barrett said. “I would like for [complaints] to be forwarded on to me. That way, we can look into [complaints] and see if there’s some process that we can improve on our side.”

In other business, commissioners:

* learned that the RC&D grant cycle has opened;

* heard a request from Industrial Development (ID) Board Chairperson Orbuty Ozier requesting revenue from hay cut at the Fort Deposit Industrial Park be deposited to ID board accounts; and

* appropriated $325 to Jackson-Steele Elementary School.

The commission’s next meeting will be held Monday, March 24 at 6 p.m.