By Jeff Hampton
The Virginian-Pilot
CURRITUCK COUNTY, N.C. — Currituck County has agreed to donate $200,000 toward the purchase of a new Nightingale emergency and medical transport helicopter.
Operated through Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Nightingale had requested up to $1 million as part of a fund raising campaign for a $7 million air-craft .
The current air ambulance is a 23-year-old Eurocopter BK117 , and the program hopes to get the new one in 2011.
Before Monday’s vote, the commissioners debated for months whether to give $1 million, nothing or something in between.
“I made what I called a compromise motion, and it passed,” Commissioner Vance Aydlett said.
Nightingale first approached Currituck early last year and made another pitch in August.
Nightingale flies more missions to Currituck County than any other area in northeastern North Carolina.
A helicopter flight to the trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital can take 20 minutes from the Outer Banks while an ambulance drive through traffic could take two hours.
In 2008, Nightingale flew 634 missions, 233 of which were to northeastern North Carolina.
Currituck County led six other counties in the region in the number of Nightingale on-scene emergency missions with 59, up from 36 in 2007, according to statistics provided by Currituck County Emergency Medical Services.
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