LIVERMORE FALLS – Members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Ambulance Options agreed Thursday afternoon to go with Franklin Memorial Hospital for ambulance service for the coming year, although they have concerns about what the future holds.
The committee represents Livermore, Livermore Falls and Jay.
Officials stressed this is just a one-year decision as they fear the subsidies will continue to grow as FMH has predicted, from the $142,000 originally proposed for 2003/04 for the three towns to $165,000 the following year and $196,000 in 2005/06.
Last week the committee met with representatives of United Ambulance of Lewiston and Med-Care of Mexico, looking for alternatives, and with Community Emergency Services of FMH hoping for a reduced subsidy.
FMH did propose a reduction and Chairman Ruth Marden presented a comparison of the results which found the total subsidies at $110,894 for FMH, $103,180 for Med-Care and $175,000 for United.
The FMH and United amounts include a base while the Med-Care one did not. In addition, both Med-Care and United would require the purchase of ambulances and equipment.
Marden expressed her concern about having all three towns on the same page, a concern shared by the others who realize the Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls need to stick together to get the best deal.
One alternative the committee has considered is going back to a first responder service but Marden said the people in Jay are not willing to cut back.
Her town has already approved the 2003/04 subsidy at its town meeting but Livermore and Livermore Falls don’t meet until June 12 and 11, respectively.
Kurt Schaub, administrative assistant in Livermore, said his Budget Committee recommended the requested subsidy but both the selectmen and Budget Committee in Livermore Falls have made no recommendation, opting to leave the decision up to the voters at town meeting.
The committee set its next meeting on June 19 so the voting results will be known.
If it passes, we’ll start working on the contact (with FMH). If it doesn’t, we’ll have to do some scrambling,” Marden said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.