"We have a copy of the proposed ambulance “agreement”
between the Fire Dept and the Town. Why we need this when Campion
serves the town is anybody's guess but:
Basically what it says is,
1. You ( the town ) give us ( Perrotti Fire Dept ) money and
2. We ( the Perrotti Fire Dept ) keeps the profit.
There’s some other verbiage in there that we’ll print later, but that’s
basically it."
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Wrong again. First, no ambulance agreement has been voted upon by the MVFD., so no valid agreement exists.
Since the 1950s the MVFD has successfully operated an ambulance within the Town without an agreement. However in his quest to destabilize the MVFD, former First Selectman Ed. St. John attempted to seize the ambulance billing funds by insisting that the MVFD sign an outrageous and unrealistic ambulance agreement with the Town.
The MVFD unanimously rejected Mr. St. John’s take over bid of the billing funds that save the taxpayers of Middlebury thousands of dollars a year. During this period before last fall’s elections, the MVFD and the Town wasted thousands of dollars in legal fees fighting over Mr. St. John’s agreement.
When Tom Gormley was elected, he threw the St. John agreement out the window, and instructed the Town’s attorney and the MVFD attorney to come up with a realistic agreement, that everyone could live with. That is what is happening now, but no final agreement has been voted on.
The notion that the Town gives the MVFD money and the MVFD keeps the profits is nothing more than a lie.
The Town Pays for:
The building in which the ambulances are stored.
Insurance for the vehicles.
Fuel for the vehicles. That’s it.
The MVFD raises and pays for everything else.
The vehicle itself - The MVFD just ordered a new ambulance at a cost of around $170,000. That is $170,000 that does not have to come from the taxpayer.
All maintenance for the vehicles.
All supplies including oxygen for the PD.
Training and certification charges for EMTs
Approximately $80,000 a year in ALS charges. Again, saving $80,000 in taxpayer money per year.
Motorola pagers for the EMTs.
All other costs are picked up by the MVFD.
There is no profit. What is not spent in the operation costs goes into an ambulance replacement fund to pay for a new ambulance down the road.
This is what is called good financial planning.
What the MVFD is lacking at this time are people to volunteer, and train to run on the ambulance. The ambulance and all the taxpayer savings will mean nothing, if we lack the staff to operate it. If Mr. DeAngelis is really concerned about the Town’s ambulance, he should get into a classroom and train to become an EMT. That would be the productive thing to do, and a benefit to the Town.
Hiring Campion to replace the MVFD ambulance would be a disaster and would result in much higher taxes.
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Again, as I, Mr. Anonymous have stated before, Mr. DeAngelis is his usual deluded self. He still has this crazy, mistaken idea that Campion, AMR, or someone else will just do EMS in Middlebury at no cost to the taxpayer, just the users of service. Campion is the back-up to the MVFD ambulance. This is all part of the agreement between Campion and the MVFD for ALS service, which, by the way, is another unfunded state mandate. The Board of Selectmen is responsible to ensure that ALS service is available by state statute. When Campion comes to town because the MVFD could not get a crew to respond, they direct bill the patient. They do this because they know they are not the primary EMS responder in Middlebury. If they were required to be the primary responder, they would also be required to be sure they had at least one ambulance available to respond in Middlebury at all times, along with a back-up plan in case they had no cars available. All this costs money, money which would come out of taxpayer dollars, which the current system does not. As was stated in the original post, the town pays insurance and fuel. I personally do not even see the building space as an issue, since the ambulance occupies a space that would probably just sit empty otherwise. Insurance costs would only come down minimally, since the majority of EMS personnel are firefighters, and the liability coverage for those people would need to be maintained anyhow. Since the ambulances are on a fleet policy, the cost savings there would also be minimal. That leaves fuel, which, in the larger scheme of town fuel expenses, is, again, minimal. So, let's save about $50K a year (rough estimate, and probably high) so we can pay Campion or AMR some 2 to 3 hundred K of tax dollars a year, plus have our residents who use the service (most of whom are elderly) be subjected to collections when they can't pay. Pat, I love your argument in favor of dumping the ambulance. I can see now why you are such a genius!!!
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