BEAUMONT — The Jefferson County Commissioners heard from Indigent Healthcare director Cecil Walkes about building a customized emergency mobile unit.

“It is our great pleasure to report to the court that the grant for which we applied for an emergency mobile unit has been approved,” Walkes said. “Within the next week or two, we will receive a check for $463,000. This will improve the access to care for people where they live as well as improve the aspect of preventative medicine.”

The grant allows the county to build its own emergency mobile unit.

“We’re very excited because it is something that we rarely get,” Walkes said. “It will be a great asset to the county. It will be one of the most, if not the most, up-to-date unit you will find anywhere.”

Daniel Ayers, who will help in building the unit, said it will be top notch.

“I’ve been in this business for an incredibly long time,” Ayers said. “We call this our primary healthcare. It will come with the standard EMT scopes that you see with your doctor’s office. It is complete with a mobile telemedicine system so that you can park anywhere and get a shot of the southern sky and be able to pull in the greatest medical minds of any profession on the planet and have them be able to diagnose a problem from anywhere you are.”

Precint 4 commissioner Everette “Bo” Alfred said the unit will benefit the county tremendously.

“This will help, not just in the everyday use, but when emergency time comes,” he said. “If people are trapped in, and we need to put this in different locations where we can get to them, it will benefit us to have this. I want to thank the court for approving this and Dr. Walkes and his staff for going through with it.”

Jefferson County Judge Branick also wanted to thank those who had to do the painstaking work.

“I would also like to thank the people who had to wade through all of the grant paper work,” he said with a laugh.

The commissioners’ court will resume its regular schedule Monday.