Ambulance remount and EMS upfit shop chasing Hardin Fiscal Court's recurring 5-7 year remount cycle — three open bids close June 7, 2026 against out-of-state defenders.

The procurement signal is unusually clean. One Fiscal Court, one EMS director, three bids posted simultaneously under one category, one closing time. The bids appear on the CivicEngage portal at hardincountyky.gov/bids.aspx with email-and-text alert sign-up. Bid 2026-12 is a wholly new Type 1 chassis-and-module build. Bids 2026-13 and 2026-14 are remounts of the county's existing 2021 Osage Super Warrior and 2021 Osage Warrior modules.

A remount takes the patient-care box off the old chassis and remounts it onto a new one — typically a Ford F-450 4x4 for Type 1, or an E-450 cutaway. The shop refurbishes electrical, oxygen, HVAC, lighting, paint, decals, stretcher mounts, radio, and the rest of the required equipment. Industry-published savings on a remount versus new run 20 to 40 percent. That is why every nine-truck-class Kentucky county service runs a remount rotation rather than buying nine new builds.

The recurring-cadence math is the part the procurement portal alone does not show. Hardin EMS now operates nine full-time ambulances after the May 2025 addition at the West Hardin / White Mills station. On a 5-to-7-year remount cycle that is roughly one to two remounts per year plus a new build every two to three years — exactly the 2026 pattern visible in the three open bids. EMS Director Mark Peterson is the single named decision-maker. The courthouse line is 270-765-2350. The EMS administrative address is 170 N Provident Way, Elizabethtown, KY 42701.

The block-grant relationship with the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services (KBEMS) is active. The court accepted a $10,000 Ambulance Block Grant on the December 2025 consent agenda. None of the three open bids reference a sole-source justification, which means each is open to any qualified bidder who can document KBEMS-compliant install scope and Osage-module remount past performance.

The named defender list is out of area. American Response Vehicles in Columbia, Missouri (573-443-8881) explicitly serves Kentucky as part of a Midwest territory and represents American Emergency Vehicles plus Frontline. Select-Tech operates from Illinois and Indiana. Arrow and North Central round out the regional bench. Osage Industries — the original module manufacturer for the two Hardin units up for remount — opened a dedicated Remount Center in Linn, Missouri in July 2022 and sells through licensed independent dealers across 45 states. Horton Emergency Vehicles runs an exclusive Indiana-and-Michigan dealer and has no Kentucky-resident exclusive in publicly visible locators.

Inside Hardin, the existing fleet-and-truck-repair bench is general-purpose, not KBEMS-trim certified. Hardin County Truck and Trailer (Elizabethtown, 270-765-5707) runs 24/7 heavy-duty towing and trailer repair. Don Franklin Ford and Swope run dealer-side fleet desks. Elizabethtown Mobile Truck Repair handles general DOT and mechanical work. None of these names appears in the dealer-referral lists for Osage, Horton, American Emergency Vehicles, Wheeled Coach, Life Line, Braun, Medix, or McCoy Miller. None publicly documents the install training required under KKK-A-1822, NFPA 1917, or the CAAS Ground Vehicle Standard. The 3-to-8 person upfit shop has a real white-space lane in Hardin; the realistic existing-operator pool inside the county is zero to one.

Per-remount upfit pricing. Industry-published remount savings versus new are 20–40%. A new Type 1 Ford F-450 4×4 KBEMS-spec ambulance prices in the $310K–$420K range in the 2025–2026 build window depending on module brand, electrical package, powerload stretcher, and radio integration. A remount on the same Osage Warrior or Super Warrior module typically runs $190K–$275K all-in to the county — chassis ($75K–$95K Ford F-450 4×4 dealer cost), module refurbishment and remount labor ($85K–$140K), KBEMS-compliant electrical/oxygen/HVAC/lighting/decal/stretcher-mount/radio install ($20K–$40K). The KBEMS-install scope inside that envelope is the white-space lane: $20K–$40K of in-shop labor and parts per unit, on a 5-to-12-week per-truck cycle, billed either as a sub to the prime remounter (ARV, Select-Tech, North Central) or directly to the Fiscal Court when bid as the prime.

Per-new-build upfit margin. On a new Type 1 build (bid 2026-12), the prime is typically the regional dealer-of-record; the upfit shop's role is a $25K–$50K KBEMS-trim slice (radio shop, stretcher rails, decals/striping, supplemental electrical, oxygen plumb, prep-for-service, on-site delivery checkout). Net margin on that slice runs 18–28% at a 3–8 person shop with one bay dedicated to ambulance work — $4.5K–$14K per truck, two-to-five-day in-shop turnaround. The volume comes from being on the dealer's referral list for Kentucky, Tennessee, and Southern Indiana inbound — a dealer like ARV or Emergency Vehicles Plus needs a downstate KBEMS-compliant install partner so they don't haul every truck back to Columbia, Missouri or central Indiana for finish work.

Recurring-revenue ambulance fleet PM. Beyond the bid lane, the same nine-truck Hardin EMS fleet plus the comparable services in LaRue, Meade, Breckinridge, Grayson, Nelson, Marion, Bullitt, and Hart generates a recurring preventive-maintenance and warranty-service revenue stream — roughly $4K–$9K per truck per year in PM, brake, A/C, electrical, and module-trim work. A 60–80 truck KBEMS service-area book, gross-margin 22–32% on labor plus 12–18% on parts, lands in the $250K–$520K annual recurring-revenue range on top of the per-bid project work. KBEMS-trim certification plus radio-shop tooling (Motorola APX / Kenwood NX-5000 install certification, P25 Phase II programming) is the gating credential.

RMA NAICS context and SBA 7(a) worked example. Ambulance remount and finish-out sits across NAICS 336211 Motor Vehicle Body Manufacturing and NAICS 811111 General Automotive Repair / 811198 All Other Automotive Repair. RMA Annual Statement Studies industry medians for body-manufacturing-class small shops show 28–35% gross margin and 8–14% net pre-tax. SBA 7(a) worked example for a $350K start: $50K founder equity + $300K SBA 7(a) at Prime + 2.75% (currently roughly 11.0–11.25% blended) over 10 years on equipment and working capital = ~$4,150/month debt service, ~$50K/year. Break-even at 4 remount-prime jobs per year ($200K revenue × 32% gross = $64K) plus 18 sub-trim slices ($720K revenue × 24% gross = $173K) — well below the 9-truck Hardin baseline plus regional referral spillover.

• Hardin County Fiscal Court

  County government — procurement authority

  Institution

  Courthouse at 150 N Provident Way, Elizabethtown, KY 42701; main line 270-765-2350. Issues all three June 7, 2026 ambulance/remount bids through the CivicEngage bids portal.
• Hardin County EMS — Director Mark Peterson

  County EMS service — decision-maker

  Institution

  Administrative address 170 N Provident Way, Elizabethtown, KY 42701. Briefed Fiscal Court in May 2025 on the ninth full-time ambulance at the West Hardin / White Mills station. NPI 1104887975. Single named decision-maker on the open bids.
• hardincountyky.gov/bids.aspx (CivicEngage portal)

  Procurement portal

  Institution

  Self-serve email/SMS alert sign-up. Three open EMS bids all closing 6/7/2026 at 1:00 PM as of report date.
• Bid 2026-12 — New Type 1 Ambulance

  Open bid — wholly new chassis + module build

  Institution

  Closes 6/7/2026 1:00 PM. Type 1 typically Ford F-450 4×4 chassis with mounted patient-care module.
• Bid 2026-13 — 2021 Osage Super Warrior Remount

  Open bid — module remount

  Institution

  Closes 6/7/2026 1:00 PM. Portal title shows 'Remout' (typo). Take 2021 Osage Super Warrior box off old chassis, remount on new chassis with KBEMS-compliant refurbishment.
• Bid 2026-14 — 2021 Osage Warrior Remount

  Open bid — module remount

  Institution

  Closes 6/7/2026 1:00 PM. Same scope shape as 2026-13 on the smaller Warrior module.
• Osage Industries (Linn, MO)

  Ambulance OEM — original module manufacturer for the two Hardin remount units

  Out-of-county

  Main line 888-977-9810. Dedicated Remount Center operational since July 2022; >1,000 remounts performed. Sells through 45-state independent dealer network.
• American Response Vehicles (Columbia, MO)

  Regional ambulance dealer + remounter — explicitly KY-serving

  Out-of-county

  573-443-8881 / 888-448-8881. Self-described 'Trusted Ambulance Dealer in the State of Kentucky'. Represents AEV + Frontline. Sells Type I/II/III + Sprinters + Remounts. 20-year Midwest Fire and EMS service footprint.
• Select-Tech (Illinois/Indiana)

  Regional ambulance dealer / remounter

  Out-of-county

  Active in Illinois and Indiana bid responses. Kentucky presence pattern-consistent; we have not confirmed direct dealer-territory assignment.
• Arrow Manufacturing

  Ambulance manufacturer / remounter

  Out-of-county

  Named in regional bid traffic for Kentucky-class county services. Headquarters and Kentucky dealer relationships not yet confirmed.
• North Central Emergency Vehicles

  Regional ambulance dealer / remounter

  Out-of-county

  Regional bench for Midwest and upper-South KBEMS-class jobs. Kentucky-specific service-area documentation not yet confirmed.
• Hardin County Truck and Trailer (Elizabethtown)

  Adjacent — heavy truck and trailer repair

  Coasting

  270-765-5707. 24/7 heavy-duty towing and trailer repair. General-fleet capacity, not KBEMS-trim certified. Reference for the adjacent local fleet-services bench.
• Kentucky Board of EMS (KBEMS)

  State regulator — license and equipment standard

  Institution

  Administers the Kentucky Ambulance Block Grant Program (FY 2026–2027 application due January 31, 2026 in KEMSIS; up to $10,000 per agency for FEMA-AEL equipment). Licenses ambulance services and references the historical KKK-A-1822 plus current NFPA 1917 / CAAS Ground Vehicle Standard family for vehicle compliance.

The acquisition lane in Hardin is structurally thin and the reader has to be willing to either build the operator or buy a Kentucky-resident fleet-upfit shop and pivot it into the KBEMS-trim lane. The realistic existing-operator pool inside Hardin is 0–1: no Elizabethtown- or Radcliff-resident remount shop publicly surfaces in dealer referral lists, in KBEMS-cert documentation, or in News-Enterprise EMS coverage. Hardin County Truck and Trailer, Don Franklin Ford fleet, Swope, and Elizabethtown Mobile Truck Repair are general-fleet operators, not specialty upfit shops. The KY Secretary of State bulk pull on Hardin-resident NAICS 811111 / 8111-prefix entities sorted by file date, plus a parallel pull on NAICS 336211 / 336212 / 336390 specialty-vehicle and body-manufacturing entities, is the gating deliverable for populating any tiered acquisition list.

The highest-yield path is a partnership-then-acquire conversation with one of the existing Tennessee or Southern Indiana ambulance dealers. American Response Vehicles (Columbia, MO), Emergency Vehicles Plus (Horton's IN/MI exclusive), and the regional Osage independent dealers all need a Kentucky-resident KBEMS-compliant install partner for downstate jobs. The reader becomes the partner first — taking sub-trim work on $25K–$50K per-truck slices for 12–18 months on the dealer's referral — and then either buys the dealer's Kentucky service rights, buys a small Hardin-resident fleet-upfit shop with bay capacity and an ASE-tech crew, or builds out independently from cash flow. The other adjacent acquisition target is a Hardin County Schools veteran ASE tech with the in-house transportation pedigree — that workforce is the binding constraint, not capital.

Cert transfer is the operational long pole. A 3–8 person shop launch needs KBEMS facility registration, KKK-A-1822-class / NFPA 1917 / CAAS GVS install training, P25 radio install certification (Motorola APX or Kenwood NX-5000), powerload stretcher install certification (Stryker Power-LOAD or Ferno iN/X), and an Onan-class generator install line. None of these are months-long lifts individually; the integrated stack plus a $250K–$400K bonding line is the realistic 12-month buildout. A buyer relocating an existing KY fleet-upfit shop with an active LLC and an existing crew compresses the build to 4–6 months.

• — EMS Director Mark Peterson's direct read on remount-cycle cadence, sole-source history, the Hardin-resident bidder list since 2018, the install-scope split between prime and sub on past awards, and the White Mills ninth-truck rollout timeline.
• — Current Kentucky administrative-regulation language on KKK-A-1822 versus NFPA 1917 versus CAAS Ground Vehicle Standard adoption, plus the operational facility-registration requirements for a remount or upfit shop.
• — Osage Industries' named Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee independent dealers. The 45-state network is not enumerated in publicly visible content; the dealer-locator hold line (888-977-9810) is the verification step.
• — Horton Emergency Vehicles' Kentucky representation. Emergency Vehicles Plus is the named exclusive for Indiana and Michigan; whether Kentucky is held by a different REV-affiliated dealer or is open referral territory is unconfirmed.
• — The Hardin-specific historical pattern of the last decade of remount and new-build awards plus the named winning bidders. The 5-to-7-year cadence is industry-standard but the county-specific record has not been pulled from past Fiscal Court minutes.
• — KKK-A-1822 sunset status versus the current Ground Vehicle Standard. GSA has signaled sunset but with no firm date; CAAS GVS V.2.0 and NFPA 1917 are both active.
• — The Hardin-resident NAICS 811111 and 336211 entity list. A Kentucky Secretary of State bulk pull would bound the zero-to-one existing-operator estimate with named addresses.
• — Adjacent-county bid traffic across LaRue, Meade, Breckinridge, Grayson, Nelson, Marion, Bullitt, and Hart. Those eight portals would extend the recurring-revenue book from 9 trucks to 60 to 80 trucks.
• — Full technical spec packets for bids 2026-12, 2026-13, and 2026-14 — chassis, module options, electrical scope, radio package, delivery date, performance-bond requirements. The portal listings show only title and closing time; the spec requires a vendor download.

Tonight, this week, this month — in that order. Each step produces a yes/no or a number, not a deeper understanding.