Helicopter and herbicide might be coming to Greenville

Published 5:47 pm Friday, May 7, 2010

Baptist Life Flight may be storing an emergency helicopter in Greenville.

Kevin Stanhope addressed the county commission workshop meeting Thursday, asking to be considered at Monday’s meeting.

A representative from the Pensacola based helicopter service said his group serves a large part of the southeast.

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“We have four helicopters across Alabama, Florida and Mississippi,” Stanhope said. “A helicopter base in Greenville could improve response rates for patients with serious injuries, who need to be transported to Birmingham, Montgomery or Mobile for treatment.”

Stanhope said they are trying to find 2 acres of land to establish a base or office space near the airport that can be leased.

In addition to higher response rate, Stanhope said the base would bring 20 jobs to Butler County and would purchase 40,000 gallons of fuel annually.

The helicopter would also be available for search and rescue assistant post-disaster reconnaissance.

County Engineer Dennis McCall addressed the commission about resuming the program of rotating county dump trucks every one year now that trucks will fetch a higher price at market.

McCall also talked about Butler County’s grass mowing program, which he called on of the most aggressive in the state. Butler County is one of the few counties not to utilize an herbicide program as part of its highway maintenance plan.

Herbicide sprayers would follow behind mowing crews and are designed down growth.

By contracting the job out, McCall said they could reduce the price of controlling the growth of roadside plants and weeds from around $98 per mile to $50 per mile.

On Monday, the commission will also discuss these items:

– A request by E & R Grocery for an “off premises only” beer license.

– A Department of Health request to appoint Ann Killough to replace Estelle Womack, who resigned.