New regulations are being considered for a new contract with Haynes Ambulance, with the county commission unanimously approving the changes Monday night.

Chris Dozier, Pike County 911 director, said the changes must still go before the Troy and Brundidge city councils and the 911 board must approve before the contract is finalized.

Changes are proposed to the response times expected based on location.

In the new contract proposal, a response time of seven minutes or less would be expected 90 percent of the time if an emergency call is placed within Troy Fire jurisdiction or in the Brundidge city limits.

“Rural” areas, which is defined as within the Troy and Brundidge police jurisdictions, would require a response time of 14 minutes or less 90 percent of the time.

And for “super rural” areas of Pike County outside of those limits, a response time of 21 minutes or less would be required 90 percent of the time.

The new contract would enact a fine if any response time takes more than 35 minutes.

Dozier said the reason only 90 percent of calls are expected to come in under the stated time limits in the three areas is to allow for rare situations and exceptions.

Another change to the contract proposal is that this version would be a two-year contract with three additional years that could be added on an annual basis. The contract had previously set three years of using Haynes and an annual option for the next two years.

Commissioner Charlie Harris, District 6, mentioned an incident over the weekend in which ambulance service took more than 35 minutes to respond to a medical incident at a Brundidge church.

Chairman Robin Sullivan said the new contract “is either going to fix those problems or we’re going to fine them.”

“We’re trying to get our hands around response times and enforce the rules of these agreements if they don’t meet these terms,” Sullivan said.

The commission also awarded the resurfacing of County Road 7707 from U.S. Highway 231 to Lockheed Martin to low-bidder Midsouth Paving for $436,502. The project is funded at 50 percent by Industrial Access fund from the state while the other half is funded by Federal Aid Exchange Funds (FAEF), which is the new funding by the Rebuild Alabama Act to replace the annual federal aid funding distributed by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT).

The commission also approved application for a $250,0000 grant to pave County Road 7707 two miles north of County Road 7718. The grant is one of the new Rebuild Alabama competitive grant pools.

County Engineer Russell Oliver notified the commission that the county’s application for the new “ATRIP II” program as part of the Rebuild Alabama Act was not selected for a grant. The application proposed the resurfacing of county roads 2224 and 2227, which are the roads that lead to Pike County. The commission had hoped to have the road resurfaced to increase access to the state-owned lake and park area.

In other business, the commission:

• Accepted a $29,000 grant award for the EMA.

• Approved a general leave of absence for an employee in the probate office

• Approved a resolution amending minutes from several previous meetings to change the words “line of credit” to “promissory note” for auditing purposes.

• Approved for the City of Troy to contract for EMA and juvenile services.

The Commission will next meet on Tuesday, Nov. 12 due to Veterans Day.