An ambulance belonging to the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority is shown at the KCEAA headquarters, 601 Brooks St. in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on July 11, 2024.
An ambulance belonging to the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority is shown at the KCEAA headquarters, 601 Brooks St. in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on July 11, 2024.
ASHLEY PERHAM | Gazette-Mail file photo
The Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority Board of Directors on Thursday approved $1.5 million for the purchase of four new ambulances and the refurbishment of four existing fleet ambulances.
Plans to pay for the ambulances, whether with cash or financing, will have to be approved later.
The four new ambulances will cost around $165,000 each, said Monica Mason, executive director. The four refurbished ambulances, which will have the back of the ambulance put on a different chassis, cost around $125,000 each. Additional equipment that could be put on those ambulances will cost more.
KCEAA has 37 active ambulances. In order to keep the fleet at the recommended standard of having fewer than 250,000 miles on the vehicle, KCEAA “in a perfect world†would need 10 more, Mason said.
Mason is hoping for a staggered delivery of ambulances over the next fiscal year so KCEAA doesn’t need 10 new ambulances at once in the future.
Mason said one company said the new ambulances could be delivered by the end of the year. Refurbished rigs may take about four months, but it depends where KCEAA is in the queue to get ambulances.
The board also approved the $25 million budget for the 2026 Fiscal Year that starts Tuesday. There is a $3.5 million budget deficit that will have to be covered out of reserve funds. If the ambulances are paid for with cash, that deficit will increase to $5 million, said Tom Susman, KCEAA spokesperson.
"That's before ... the full impact of all the billing changes," Susman said. "That's before all this stuff that's being done to manage through it."
The KCEAA also has a pending Congressional Directed Spending request with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., for $2.1 million for the purchase of another six ambulances.
CLICK HERE to follow the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Gazette-Mail and receive
