Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — A small crowd gathered on March 18 in the conference room of the Municipal Building in Limestone for the Selectpeople’s meeting as they discussed a small agenda including review of the proposed 2009-10 budget, meeting with Vice President of Ancillary Patient Services at TAMC Jim McKenney and other TAMC staff, opening bids on tax acquired property, and an executive session with Scott and Robbie Caldwell regarding the land on the Long Road owned by the town.
After attending the Selectpeople’s meeting in Limestone, members of Boy Scout Troop 193 took a photo with Selectmen Fred Pelletier, Walter Elliott, Paul Poitras and Jim Leighton. Not pictured is Selectman Gary O’Neal.
McKenney and other TAMC staff answered questions proposed by the selectmen regarding the ambulance agreement between Limestone and TAMC, including questions about potential fee increase of 5 percent a year during the five-year contract, and the relocation of the Limestone ambulance crew whenever another TAMC ambulance crew is unavailable.
“Eighty-one percent of the calls in Limestone are actually covered by the Limestone crew in Limestone, 19 or 18 percent of the calls are covered out of Fort Fairfield, and there has been one call last year that was answered out of Presque Isle,” the Selectpeople were told by McKenney.
When asked if those statistics sounded accurate, Limestone Fire Chief Paul Durepo stated his disagreement with documentation in hand.
“I have documentation from Maine EMS, for example, stating that the ambulance responded from Fort Fairfield 43 times,” Durepo stated. “They also reported from Presque Isle nine times, and that was the Presque Isle crew. I believe it’s misleading to think that for 81 percent of the calls in Limestone that that Limestone crew is sitting in Limestone,” he added. “My problems is that we pay the same subsidy as everyone else but the standard operating procedure for Crown Ambulance is that if any [other crew] calls in sick, they pull the crew out of Limestone and cover [for example] the Fort Fairfield shift, so we’re always with the least amount of help.”
“To add insult to injury at this time now,” Durepo explained, “you look at Presque Isle and they’re not paying any subsidy at all and I feel that we’re paying Presque Isle’s subsidy and I have a problem with that. I think it’s time to sit down and at least talk about options of being contracted by Caribou or at least look at some options so perhaps we could get better service with more coverage more of the time,” he said. “I just have a real problem with an ambulance responding from Fort Fairfield or Presque Isle when Presque Isle no longer pays the subsidy. If someone calls in sick in Presque Isle, pull the unit of Presque Isle and keep them in Limestone,” Durepo suggested, “we’re the ones paying for it.”
“When someone calls in sick, we first try to cover the shift with anyone that’s not working before we pull someone from Limestone,” McKenney clarified. “We only pull Limestone when we have no other choice. Regarding the Presque Isle subsidy; we’re not feeling the Presque Isle subsidy yet, but what we’ve done to counter that is we are not filling one of the management positions [among other things]. None of the loss of the Presque Isle subsidy is being passed on to any other community.”
“Do you have any problem in this contract with, on page two, where it talks about the 24-hour coverage, do you have any problem in adding Limestone in there, not for 24 hours, but if we have half the call volume of the other towns, can we get at least half that time?” asked Selectman Jim Leighton. “Signing this contract right now the way I see it, without Limestone in there, it doesn’t give us anything,” he added. “This contract doesn’t give us 16 hours, it doesn’t give us 50 percent, and it doesn’t give us anything.”
According to McKenney, he didn’t see a problem guaranteeing 50 percent coverage in Limestone.
“I have never had one person complain to me about the services provided by your ambulance crew,” said Selectman Paul Poitras. All the selectmen agreed that the medical attention provided by Crown Ambulance has never been in question, and that medical services have always been above satisfactory.
Actions regarding the ambulance services with Crown Ambulance were tabled.
Members of Limestone Boy Scout Troop 193 were in attendance at the meeting to fulfill badge requirements.
