LIMESTONE, Maine — Prior to the second round of budget talks, which took place April 22, town selectmen requested that department heads lower their costs by 1 percent. The minor budget cuts, if possible, would allow department heads along with employees to receive raises. “We haven’t been able to give employees raises for a number of years,” Town Manager Fred Ventresco said.
Ventresco admitted budgets are already thin and conservative. “But they did a good job with what they could,” he said. The administration budget for the Limestone town office was difficult to cut, “We’re barebones here,” he added.
Selectmen did manage to put together a budget worth submitting to the budget committee. They plan to meet with the budget committee on Wednesday, May 6.
In other business, representatives of Presque Isle-based Crown Emergency Care attended Wednesday’s meeting to discuss the approaching shake up in ambulance services provided for the town of Limestone as Loring Development Authority is looking at options to reduce the overall cost of ambulance services. “There’s no secret about our budget being tight,” LDA President and CEO Carl Flora said. Currently ambulance services are shared between the towns of Limestone, Caswell, and LDA. When one member of the group decides it’s time for a change, the plan for all three needs to be revisited, he said.
“All three have to be in agreement for this to work,” TAMC’s Director of Patient Care Services Daryl Boucher said. “Since Loring is changing their structure we are forced to look at the process again.”
A number of options are on the table for the communities. “We are confident we can put something in place to make sure our citizens are served at the same quality,” Ventresco said.
Boucher laid out four possible strategies: use volunteer firefighters in a more collaborative way, provide service from an outlying community such as Fort Fairfield, go back to an older system of a 24/7 rotating crew for long-distance transfers, or 24/7 coverage at a non-paramedic level and provide in the mix of two people a firefighter.
“We face a lot of changes because the municipalities are all having struggles with finances,” Boucher said. “We work with them and try to come up with things that are creative so we can provide good quality service.”
In the meantime the current shared services plan among the three entities will continue until a new plan is created.
