OXFORD – The hot-button issue of changing ambulance services was discussed at Thursday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting, and again nothing was resolved.
In April, the town Budget Committee listened to representatives from PACE Paramedic Service and Oxford Fire and Rescue, but determined that not enough information was provided to make a recommendation to the town.
On Thursday night, PACE Director Robert Tarbox argued that his service was worth switching to because it would cost the town nothing.
Selectmen and Oxford Fire and Rescue volunteer Lois Pike asked, “Why are we holding this conversation?” Oxford taxpayers are only paying $32,000 for their current service, she said.
Pike also stressed the significance of Oxford’s having its own ambulance service. PACE’s ambulances, based next to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, serve six towns in the area.
Oxford Police Chief and Public Safety Director Ron Kugell said that any contract with PACE would be incomplete without the following stipulations:
• That PACE’s parent company enter into the agreement with the town.
• That there be a guarantee that PACE will never charge the town for service.
• That if PACE ever withdraws its service, it pay the cost of Oxford starting up an ambulance service again.
At the April meeting, Tarbox indicated that PACE would consider purchasing Oxford Fire and Rescue’s current equipment if it were awarded the ambulance contract.
Kugell said after the meeting that from a public safety standpoint, disbanding Oxford Rescue means reducing the number of ambulances available not just in Oxford but to the entire region. Oxford has three ambulances, he said, and under PACE’s plan the town would get the equivalent of a half-time ambulance.
“If we had a mass casualty, there wouldn’t be as many units available,” he said. “With the units we have now, if one service is called, other services can fill the gap. We start reducing the services and there’s less backup.”
Also, he said, if the region has three or four ambulance services and one of them goes on strike, there are others to fill in the gap.
The board did not decide when it would resume discussion of the ambulance issue. Chairman Floyd Thayer said in April that he was agreeable to letting residents decide the issue at the annual town meeting June 18.
Past attempts to change from Oxford Fire and Rescue to PACE have been rejected by voters.
Comments are no longer available on this story