Vermilion Parish Police Jury says no to two ambulance services in parish

There will not be two ambulance services in Vermilion Parish.
The police jury voted 7-4 to deny Global Medical Response from locating in the parish.
Jurors voting not to let Global Medical Response (Med Express) into Vermilion were Ronald Darby, Liz Touchet, Mark Poché, Chad Lege, Chad Vallo, Scott Broussard and Dexter Callahan.
Dane Hebert, Brent Landry, Errol Domingues and Ronald Menard voted to allow Global Medical Response into the parish.
Police Jury President Jason Picard abstained from voting. Jurors Sandrus Stelly and Paul Bourgeois were not at the meeting.
Global Medical Response and Acadian Ambulance had representatives speak to the jurors before they voted. On rep tried to convince the jurors that another ambulance service was needed, while the other said one is not needed in the parish.
Cory Miller, a spokesman for Global Medical Response, told the jurors that Acadian Ambulance has one ambulance in the parish for every 15,000 people. On weekends and nights, it’s one ambulance for every 30,000 people.
Miller said that allowing another ambulance company into the parish would mean there would be one ambulance for every 8,400 people in the parish. At night, it would be reduced to one ambulance for every 1,100 people.
After Miller spoke, Vermilion Parish residents voiced their opinion on why another ambulance service is needed in the parish.
Chris Abshire, a parish resident, told the jurors more than one ambulance service is needed.
Members of the Abbeville Fire Department tried to convince the jurors to allow another ambulance service into the parish. Assistant Fire Chief Kelly Mire and Captain April Bodin complained to jurors about the response time of Acadian Ambulance.
“It is past time to help the citizens in Vermilion Parish and do what is right,” said Mire.
Bodin told the jurors that Acadian Ambulance’s times are “unacceptable.” She said there are times when the fire department has to wait 30 minutes before an ambulance arrives at a scene.
The Police Jury created an ordinance that an ambulance service company has to respond to all calls in a certain amount of time, 80 percent of the time.
So, in Abbeville, Acadian Ambulance has eight minutes to get to a scene after getting the call from 911. The further out of Abbevile the 911 call is, the more minutes are added to the arrival time.
Marc Creswell, an Abbeville native, was the spokesman for Acadian Ambulance.
Creswell told the jurors that over a five-year period, Acadian Ambulance had handled 35,280 calls in the parish and his company has yet to get a complaint about the response time in the parish.
Over the last five years, Acadian Ambulance has met or exceeded their arrival times by 80 percent or more, Creswell told the jurors.
“We can say everything we want that competition is good,” said Creswell. “The one thing we can say is that Acadian has been here for you guys through thick and thin.”
After the meeting, some jurors were surprised by the complaint from the Abbeville firefighters.
Before Wednesday night, the jurors said no firemen had ever complained to the police jury about the response time of Acadian Ambulance.
Domingues, a juror from Erath, said it might be time the jury looks into shortening the response times of Acadian Ambulance throughout the parish.