NATCHEZ &045; Amid several intensive training sessions, federal funding regulations and a lot of planning the regional hazardous material team received a gift that makes things a little easier.

Representatives from American Medical Response were on hand at Monday morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting to officially hand over an ambulance to be used by the hazmat team to transport materials.

&uot;We are in a unique situation,&uot; AMR Development Manager Jim Pollard told the board. &uot;We are by far the largest distributor (of ambulances in the United States) so we have tremendous resources that we can share with the community we serve.&uot;

The ambulance is a 1994 model with 167,000 miles that was scrupulously maintained, Pollard said.

The regional hazmat team serves the counties of Wilkinson, Amite, Franklin, Jefferson, Pike, Lincoln, Walthall and Adams. It responds to everything from gas spills to major terror threats.

Members of the team will attend a weeklong training course on April 19-23 and an overnight session at the fire academy later on.

The Board also discussed the role of The Kinard Group collection agency in gathering fines from delinquent garbage bills. The county contracted the work out the group last year, but supervisors expressed concerns about the commission the group receives since many residents pay their fines directly to the Adams County Sanitation Department. Supervisor Henry Watts also questioned the amount of employees the company has.

When the group located in Natchez in the fall, they promised to employee 25 or more workers and have hired far less than that, Watts said.

Board members agreed to arrange a meeting with Kinard to discuss the terms of their contract.

In other business, the board reappointed Melton King to serve on the Co-Lin Community College Board of Trustees.