The town of Buckfield will hold a special town meeting at 7 p.m. on  Aug. 27 at the Buckfield High School vote on whether or not to restore funds to the Buckfield Rescue Service.

It will be a chance for both sides to be heard on this very important issue.

In my opinion, if the town does not vote to restore the funds, the town will run the risk of having to shut down the Buckfield Rescue Service completely.

Let me explain.

This is a lean budget with no fat, and in my view the only way to achieve the cuts would be go back to the practice of not paying our night and weekend responders.

It was only recently that we began paying them the going rate of $2 per hour. We had to do this because we were competing with the other rescue services that pay their responders.

Emergency Medical Technicians and drivers are in demand. I have seen no evidence that today we could find enough EMTs and drivers to provide night and weekend coverage without pay.

Since all rescue services are required by the Maine Emergency Medical Services to provide coverage 24/7, it seems to me that our only choice would be to disband the Buckfield Rescue Service.

It would be a sad, sad day for the town of Buckfield, a town which prides itself in neighbors caring about neighbors, if it stopped providing this life-saving service.

Patricia Ledlie, Buckfield