BRATTLEBORO — A total of 16 firefighters have quit since this town’s government began debating whether its current 23-member fire department should take over all emergency medical services, personnel records show.
The private nonprofit Rescue Inc. operated ambulances for the municipality for nearly six decades before local leaders decided last year, with little public notice or debate, to drop Rescue’s $285,600 annual contract in favor of launching a transition plan toward a town takeover.
Before the change, one firefighter left the force in the first half of 2022, according to public paperwork. But since the switch in June of last year, 16 staffers have departed.
Of the latter firefighters who quit, five had worked multiple years before leaving, while 11 had been hired just days, weeks or months before their departures, records show. As for their reasons, eight said they were taking other employment, five reported “voluntary resignation,” one “retirement,” one “personal reason” and one “unsuccessful probation.”
The department was able to hire 15 firefighters to replace the 16 who left, but only eight of those new employees remain on the job, records show.
The town is now advertising to fill an unspecified number of openings. In the meantime, one-third of the force has only entry-level firefighting certification and no more than a year of local experience, according to public paperwork.
The Brattleboro Selectboard, which recently learned a long-term EMS takeover could cost up to $1.9 million in first-year expenses, is scheduled to receive a report Tuesday noting that Rescue and a second unnamed private provider have expressed interest in offering coverage if leaders decide to return to an outside contractor.
Combined municipal fire/EMS stations throughout Vermont have cautioned about soaring ambulance calls and costs.
“Brattleboro definitely has got its work cut out,” Barre City Fire Chief Keith Cushman told VTDigger in a story on the subject last month. “Staffing, hours of training, delays to the supply chain … it just continues to trend upward. There are so many moving parts to an EMS system. I don’t know if I’d want to try to build one now.”
But a review of personnel records shows Brattleboro faces yet another challenge: Hiring enough firefighters to fill its current ranks, let alone a projected need for seven new staffers for EMS.
Before the town dropped Rescue, it had up to seven firefighters on duty at any one time, with three platoons totaling 21 members. This March, the selectboard approved raising that number by one to eight per shift, or 24 members overall. But only one of three platoons now listed on the fire department’s website has a full complement, with the other two lacking a collective three members.
Brattleboro firefighters, like residents in other professions, can make more money working in larger communities in nearby states, with such options as Keene, New Hampshire, and Greenfield, Massachusetts, only a half-hour away.
But the town’s current test of an EMS takeover — leaders are scheduled to finalize a long-term plan in September — hasn’t helped with recruiting, even with contracted support from Golden Cross Ambulance of Claremont, New Hampshire.
“With taking over ambulance services, we have seen an approximately 60% increase in our call volume, while original estimates from the town were approximately 300 calls more per year (11%),” the local firefighters union posted in a public letter on its Facebook page.
Municipal leaders are considering a proposal to add an EMS supervisor (at $127,056 a year) and six new firefighters (at $88,404 each) — raising the department’s annual budget by $657,480, according to town calculations. But they’ve yet to explain how they’ll hire enough people when they’ve been unable to stem the current turnover.
(A similar shortfall at the Brattleboro Police Department — budgeted for 27 officers but currently employing only 17 — has forced the town to hire unarmed private security guards for a downtown test project.)
The staffing question is the latest surprise encountered since former Town Manager Octavian “Yoshi” Manale unveiled the EMS takeover plan in April 2022, claiming it would not only cost less than Rescue’s annual fee but also reap “$500,000 to $700,000 net gain in revenue.”
Neither of Manale’s statements have proven true since he abruptly resigned eight weeks later. Although the selectboard hasn’t shared any of the facts or figures that caused it to approve the change, an independent feasibility study the board commissioned found that a municipal takeover would increase costs, yet bolster the town’s understaffed system of crisis response.
Specifically, the feasibility study said the town could collect an estimated $935,626 in annual insurance payments if it funded enough employees and equipment to respond to all EMS calls, but still would need to pay more than $300,000 a year to cover almost $1.3 million in expenses — a figure higher than the most recent Rescue contract.
Municipal leaders, responding to a March Town Meeting call for a “transparent” decision-making process, are scheduled to present their own set of financial figures at Tuesday’s selectboard meeting that aim to show a takeover in a more cost-effective light.
“In future years, expenses are likely to rise, especially staffing and capital costs,” administrators have written in a selectboard memo. “However, it will be a challenge regardless of which EMS model (fully municipal or third-party) the town chooses. Any third-party EMS provider would face similar cost increases and the same reimbursement rates as a municipal system and likely pass those along to the town.”
Leaders also will report that two private providers — one self-identified as Rescue — have expressed interest in potentially bidding on a contract.
A year and a half ago, Manale privately reopened completed negotiations with Rescue to make several new demands, including one that the provider cover Brattleboro without the municipal government having to pay, multiple people have confirmed to VTDigger.
(“I’m not going to continue a back-and-forth,” Manale said in response to the situation before his departure.)
Since then, VTDigger has learned new Town Manager John Potter extended an olive branch to Rescue last month by hand-delivering an invitation to the agency to participate in the current process.
“The town and the selectboard are interested in considering a range of options for EMS services,” Potter said when asked to comment.
