BRATTLEBORO — A week before a selectboard vote on the future of emergency medical services, municipal leaders and residents are divided over the prospect of a town takeover.
Local officials held a forum Tuesday that they advertised as a public hearing, only to surprise a crowd of more than 100 people by spending the first hour endorsing their plan to have the town fire department handle ambulance calls.
“I believe we have a fantastic opportunity in the municipal model,” Assistant Town Manager Patrick Moreland said in one of a dozen speeches by various department heads and administrators promoting the idea of better control of all public safety operations.
After municipal employees addressed the crowd, residents spoke in favor of returning to the town’s former EMS provider, Rescue Inc., by a nearly 4-1 ratio.
“All of the rhetoric about ‘this is a public process and we want your input’ is just a sham,” retired psychologist Judy Davidson said after leaders opened the 6 p.m. hearing to constituent comments at 7 p.m.
Rescue supporters have collected more than 200 signatures on a petition they plan to continue to circulate until the selectboard is scheduled to make a decision next Tuesday, Sept. 19, local lawyer William Kraham said.
Kraham, who credited Rescue with saving his life after sudden cardiac arrest, read aloud the preamble of the town charter, which notes it was enacted “to serve the needs of all Brattleboro residents by addressing the common good of all its citizens (and) respecting the will of the people.”
“The town knows what the people want,” Kraham said. “My question is, do they have the courage to admit that they made a mistake?”
Five residents at the forum voiced support for a town EMS takeover.
“We will have much better control, regardless of how good an outside service is,” former selectboard member Tim Wessel said.
A check this week of the town’s ongoing public feedback page shows one written endorsement of the takeover, from a firefighter’s spouse. In comparison, residents who want Rescue have emailed the site at a current ratio of nearly 80-1.
A majority of the constituent communication argues that the private nonprofit provider already has employees, equipment and a nearly 60-year track record serving Brattleboro, while a town takeover would require up to $1.9 million in startup costs and comes as the fire department is reporting an annual staff turnover rate of 66%.
Local leaders acknowledge the issue is one of the most polarizing in memory.
“It’s pretty clear to me that the vocal majority in this town would like us to have, six months ago, just negotiated a contract with Rescue,” selectboard member Daniel Quipp said at a meeting last week. “It’s meaningful that members of my community are angry at me. Would I be willing to do what they want, rather than what I think is the right thing? That’s what I’ve got to weigh.”
Rescue, Windham County’s primary ambulance agency, has offered to resume coverage at nearly the same annual $285,600 rate it charged before the town dropped its nearly six-decade contract a year ago with little public notice or debate.
Municipal officials are offering only estimates rather than firm figures for their plan. An independent feasibility study they commissioned found that a takeover would increase costs, yet bolster the town’s understaffed system of crisis response.
Leaders add that startup expenses could be covered by federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
“Our community, whether we like it or not, is torn apart by this,” former selectboard member Dick DeGray said at Tuesday’s forum. “I’m not sure where we’re going to end up, but there’s going to be a lot of disappointed and hurt feelings when this decision is made.”
