Greene County-Greeneville EMS is set to pick up a new ambulance in the coming days according to EMS Director T.J. Manis.
Manis told the Greene County-Greeneville EMS Board during its meeting Thursday afternoon that EMS had recently picked up a new ambulance and a convalescent transit van, but that one ambulance remained to be picked up from the dealer in North Carolina.
That second ambulance is set to be ready to pick up in the coming days.
The ambulances will replace one ambulance with over 230,000 miles on it, and another ambulance with over 164,000 miles on it that has a broken down transmission. The convalescent transit van will replace a van that is 12 years old.
The agency has been attempting to keep up with its ambulance replacement schedule to minimize breakdowns with high mileage vehicles, but supply chain issues have plagued those looking to purchase ambulances across the nation for the past five years. Major auto manufactures only make a set number of ambulance chassis each year, which also leads to problems with supply. However, the nationwide ambulance shortage has been easing in recent months, and over year-long delivery delays have been decreasing.
EMS is still awaiting the delivery of four ambulance “remounts,” which is when an existing ambulance box is set on a new truck chassis.
Manis said he hopes that two of the new remounted ambulances will be delivered sometime in the fall.
He said that the agency’s ambulance fleet is slowly improving with the average mileage of the fleet decreasing as new vehicles slowly begin to arrive.
EMS runs six ambulances 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The agency also runs up to four ambulances for 12 hour shifts on certain days of the week.
Often, the 12-hour dayshift ambulances are used for nonemergency transport of patients to hospitals from Asheville, NC to Nashville, TN.
Assistant EMS Director Myron Hughes said that EMS is currently fully staffed, which has enabled the agency to cover the non-emergency transport trips. The lucrative trips provide revenue from Medicare and insurance companies.
Those trips help Greene County-Greeneville EMS remain the region’s only self-supported public ambulance service.
Greene County Mayor Kevin Morrison said that the agency is projected to have a revenue of about $6.2 million in Fiscal Year 2025-26, which is enough for the service to continue to cover its costs. Morrison reminded the board that EMS requires no taxpayer funding, and said that the agency does “an outstanding job” taking care of the people of Greene County.
In other business, Manis told the board that repairs to the fire-damaged EMS station in Baileyton are scheduled to start Monday. Work on the station is expected to take about two weeks. Manis said that EMS would move back into the station as soon as work was completed.
The Baileyton Board of Mayor and Aldermen recently accepted a bid from Trade-Worx that includes the the repair and restoration of the entire bathroom in the station, which is where the November 2025 fire originated. In addition, the flooring and portions of the ceiling in the station will be replaced.
The fire that damaged the station was mostly contained to the bathroom, and began when a fan shorted out in the bathroom ceiling. Two members of Greene County-Greeneville EMS evacuated the facility safely once heat from the fire woke them up, and there were no injuries reported due to the fire.
Greene County-Greeneville EMS relocated into the United Volunteer Fire Department building next to the EMS station after the fire, which has allowed an ambulance to stay stationed in the community.
