HADLEY — Pending successful negotiations with Action EMS, the private ambulance service will begin handling Hadley’s medical calls starting July 1.
The Select Board Wednesday voted unanimously to accept a recommendation from the ambulance study work group to begin contract negotiations with Action EMS, a Wilmington company with a Hadley location on Route 9 at Cross Path Road.
The decision means that Hadley is unlikely to continue being served by ambulances from the Amherst Fire Department, which respond to about 1,000 calls a year in Hadley. Amherst has provided this service since 1947.
Action EMS was the only company or community that responded to a request for proposal issued last year that sought a public or private vendor to provide faster response times, opportunities for Hadley firefighters to do ride-alongs and begin building up their skill set and to station an ambulance in Hadley.
The most recent information from the company has a $267,500 price in the first year, rising to $282,250 beginning July 1, 2019 and $297,737.50 on July 1, 2020. Those figures are expected to be the basis of contract negotiations.
The recommendation was unanimous, with one member absent, said Barbara O’Connor, chairwoman of the work group and a former member of the Select Board.
“We made that decision obviously not lightly,” O’Connor said. “We felt very passionately about the level of service that we have gotten from Amherst, they are incredibly professional and have done a tremendous job for the town of Hadley for a number of years.”
Select Board Chairwoman Joyce Chunglo, who served on the work group, said that the private entity will help the Hadley Fire Department move toward a basic ambulance service and eventually the advanced life support, or ALS level, and will have a full-time ambulance at all times at the public safety complex.
“To get us to where we want to be in two years, this seemed like the best option for us,” Chunglo said.
Though the contract will likely be significantly higher than the $135,000 the town is paying Amherst, the most recent written offer from Amherst was $200,000 beginning July 1 and moving to $245,000 starting July 1, 2019.
These proposals meant that Action EMS is reasonable, O’Connor said, for around the clock and every day of the year.
“For $67,000 you’re going to get a paramedic-level service in the town (and) dedicated to the town 24/7, 365,” O’Connor said.
Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman said Amherst has valued its long-term relationship with Hadley.
“At the beginning of this process, we stated clearly that we would support the Hadley Select Board’s decision to move in the direction it determined was in the best interests of the residents of Hadley,” Bockelman said. “We will do that.”
With Hadley going elsewhere for ambulance service, it means there will be a reduction in call volume, Bockelman said, which in turn removes some of the burden on the Amherst Fire Department that a recent ambulance study noted.
Bockelman added there had been ongoing concern that Hadley’s assessment was lower than the actual costs to Amherst, meaning that Amherst taxpayers were subsidizing the service for Hadley taxpayers.
Amherst Fire Chief Walter “Tim” Nelson said in a statement that Amherst has built an emergency medical services to be a regional provider for Hadley, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury.
“We have consistently and unfailingly delivered the highest quality emergency care, a virtual emergency room level of service, to the doorstep of every resident of every community,” Nelson said.
Hadley Select Board member Molly Keegan noted that Amherst officials have informed her and board members that Hadley has covered just a fraction of the full expenses for the ambulance service, and that the real cost is closer to $490,000. This meant Amherst’s offers were not in stone and might jump in the future.
“There’s no guarantee on those numbers,” Keegan said, adding that the numbers were a concession to try to keep Hadley in the fold.
Members of the ambulance work group said they were concerned about the stress on the Amherst Fire Department and added that Hadley residents deserve the best service and response times, which wasn’t always happening.
Finance Committee Co-Chairwoman Amy Fyden, who served on the work group, said in the Hockanum section of Hadley, closer to the South Hadley town line, residents often have 10- to 15-minute waits for ambulances, with no solution offered by Amherst.
Though Action EMS was the only proposal submitted, O’Connor said the work group had additional meetings with the town of Amherst, and also met with municipalities and private vendors about different models of service.
Work group member George Moriarty said the potential contact is money well worth spending to get the town’s own ambulance service up and running, though staying with Amherst might have been the better option should that not happen.
“If the town is seriously going to get into EMS services relatively quick, in a year or two, then Action is the only way we should look at it,” Moriarty said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
