Small towns in Alabama are feeling the effects of COVID-19, especially in terms of revenue and the ability to provide the same level of services to citizens.
In the town of Altoona, Mayor Richard Nash said he has several employees who are out with the virus or awaiting a test result.
“Our resources are not a big tax base. Our city depends on the ambulance service. That’s what pays our police chief, our fire chief, our police officer and our street workers, so when it goes down it really puts us in a strain. Here, probably 3 months ago, we lost about 35 percent of our transports because nobody wanted to go to the hospital,” said Nash.
The town operates A-Med Emergency Medical Services. It services all of Etowah County and some of Marshall County.
After the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and patient transports, EMS workers also began to get sick or quarantine for test results.