JACKSON — The Butts County Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of five mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (mCPR) for the fire department at its Nov. 14 meeting. The Sylvan Grove Hospital Authority is contributing at least $9,000 of the $9,993.05 purchase price.
Butts County Fire Chief Mike Wilson came before the BOC to request the purchase of the five devices, which will be placed on the county’s ambulances.
“These devices do automatic compressions,” said Wilson. “You put it on and it measures the compressions and doesn’t stop. It is a national standard at most EMS places, and we don’t have any right now.
“Basically it takes the human element out of it,” he added. “After so many seconds or minutes, humans get tired, stop, lose count, and have to start over. This device never stops. It also frees up a person who can be doing other things. The crews I’ve talked to, they are extremely excited about being able to get these devices.”
Wilson said the hospital authority has agreed to contribute $9,000 toward the purchase of the devices, and thanked BOC Chair Joe Brown and the authority for the partnership with the Butts County Fire Department.
Brown noted that the authority may contribute the entire amount.
“When I went to the hospital authority, they said their contribution would be around $9,000,” said Brown. “I have a feeling the hospital authority will pay the other $900, too. They helped us with the ambulances. It may be the county writes the check and then they reimburse the county.”
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
In other business, the commissioners approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Butts County and Newton County for the exchange of radio frequencies. E-911 Director Sonia Sands said the exchange will eventually help both counties when mutual aid is needed during an emergency.
“Right now Newton County does have a digital radio frequency that we don’t have access to right now,” said Sands, “but it couldn’t hurt to go ahead and have an MOU to exchange radio frequencies so when that time comes, we’ll already have this in place and be able to listen to their radios and they’ll be able to listen to ours.”
The BOC also approved the purchase of 10 pickup trucks through state contract. County Manager Brad Johnson said the purchase is part of the county’s equipment replacement plan.
“We had the opportunity to take advantage of a state contract and tonight we’d like you to approve that for 10 vehicles,” said Johnson. “Six of them are 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 4×4 crew cabs at a cost of $44,500 each. We have to have crew cabs to transport multiple personnel. The other four trucks are 2023 Ford Mavericks at $28,900 each. Total cost is $382,600.”
Johnson added that the county is in need of newer trucks as the current ones are older, have high mileage, and are costing more to maintain than they are worth.
“The county has several trucks that have 400,000 miles on them,” said Johnson. “The average age of vehicles in our fleet is 14 years old.”
The board approved all three requests in its consent agenda.
