Ambulance service appeals injunction

Elzie Malone and attorney Billy Underwood answered media questions following the hearing before Judge Terry Dempsey Sept. 18, after which Dempsey ultimately granted the request for injunction against Pleasant Bay. Malone is appealing the decision.

It was in January that Judge Terry Dempsey granted the injunction against Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service, requested jointly by the City of Russellville, City of Red Bay and Franklin County, barring the ambulance service from operating at all within the city limits of Russellville and Red Bay and from answering 9-1-1 calls in the county.

It was about two weeks ago that Elzie Malone and attorney Billy Underwood decided to appeal that decision.

“I don’t think they can pass a law keeping him from operating in Red Bay and the City of Russellville,” Underwood said.

Presently, only the contracted ambulance service – Shoals Ambulance – may obtain a business license from Russellville and Red Bay. Because Pleasant Bay did not win the bid, it cannot obtain a license.

Although Underwood said his client has no problem with the 9-1-1 contract being granted to a sole provider, the argument is that Pleasant Bay should still be permitted to respond to private calls within city limits.

In the series of hearing before Dempsey in regards to the injunction, the county agreed that it would not – and never intended to – control private calls in the county. Malone, with the appeal, is seeking those same conditions in the city limits of Red Bay and Russellville.

It could take up to a year before an opinion is handed down in the appeal.

“To me it’s a frivolous appeal,” said City of Red Bay attorney Roger Bedford. “I think Judge Dempsey did a very good job on his ruling and ruled accurately on the law.”

City of Russellville attorney Danny McDowell expressed similar confidence in the ruling handed down by Dempsey.