FARMINGTON – Selectmen authorized the town’s attorney to write a letter to Franklin Memorial Hospital to explain their intent to wait before signing a new ambulance service contract.

Town Manager Richard Davis said Monday that town officials assume that the previous contract has been automatically renewed for another year. After consulting Frank Underkuffler, the town’s attorney, selectmen felt that the three-month extension offered to them was a new contract.

“It looked like a new agreement,” said Davis, pointing to the lack of specifics regarding staffing levels and number of ambulances on duty in the extension document.

“We will have to wait to see what they’re proposing before we commit to anything,” he added.

Davis said he felt the recent announcement regarding the ambulance service was handled poorly. Though Farmington received a check for $23,000, other towns from the so-called northern tier were handed letters that appeared to be bills for tens of thousands of dollars. Apparently, the southern tier towns’ ambulance services ran at a surplus, while the towns in the northern part of the county, further from the hospital and generally smaller in population, incurred a deficit.

Representatives from each town were invited to the meeting for what appeared to be a discussion about the future of the ambulance service, said Davis. The letters and checks surprised them the most.

“This could drive a wedge between the southern and northern tier towns,” said Davis. Regionalization is a good concept but “it can be extremely difficult to implement in such a vast and diverse region,” he said, citing the differences between Jay and Rangeley as an example.

Complicating matters is the recent resignation of Jill Berry Bowen, vice president and chief operating officer of the hospital.

“It’s like planets colliding,” said Davis. “There’s a lot of uncertainties.”