MEXICO — Nine of the 11 towns served by Med-Care Ambulance have agreed to give 15% of their state and local recovery funds, part of the American Rescue Plan Act, to the emergency medical services agency for capital expenses.

In August, each town received a letter from Paul Landry, director of operations and chief of services for Med-Care, stating the agency’s desire to establish a fund for major equipment purchases. The money would be for stretchers and toward a $96,000 mobile radio system that needs to be replaced within a year, he told Canton selectmen in September.

The agency serves Rumford, Mexico, Canton, Peru, Roxbury, Byron, Dixfield, Hanover, Newry and Roxbury in Oxford County and Carthage in Franklin County.

If Dixfield and Newry decide to contribute in 2023, the agency will collect between $80,000 and $85,000, Landry said Tuesday.

In November, Med-Care received an $86,000 firefighters grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay 95% of the cost of upgrading its outdated radio system, “one of the top priorities on the capital plan,” Landry said.

Funding from the towns will pay for the other two priorities: intravenous pumps for medication administration and two power stretchers, he said.

“We have one (stretcher) that is coming toward its end of useful life and then the other one is a manual stretcher, which has a whole lot of potential problems as far as patient falls, as well as provider injury from having to manipulate those manual stretchers loading and unloading them,” Landry said. “So, those are our two priorities for 2023.”

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