The Powell Hospital District prides itself on an up-to-date fleet of ambulances.

To that end, the hospital spent nearly $600,000 to construct an ambulance garage last year and spent nearly $200,000 on a fully loaded ambulance in the spring of 2023.

The other vehicles, the ones used around the complex for tasks like maintenance, the hospital holds onto.

“We always get new ambulances, everything else we hold onto as long as we can,” Hospital CEO Joy Coulston said.

Still, the hospital recently decided to part with two of its oldest vehicles: a 1991 Ford pickup and a 2001 Chevy Lumina.

Coulston said the board decided to rid themselves of the vehicles through an internal bidding process, and staff got into it, making a brochure to advertise the two vehicles.

In the end, one employee took the chance, bid $100 and was able to drive away in the pickup, which CFO Coby La Blue noted does still run, but isn’t reliable.

“I wouldn’t trust it driving out of town,” Coulston said.

No one bid on the Lumina, possibly because they wouldn’t have been able to drive the car away — the vehicle used by the hospital’s former home health service had stopped running and needed work to do so.

So, at its October meeting, the board agreed to see if a charitable organization such as Habitat for Humanity would accept the vehicle as a donation.

— By Zac Taylor