Brattleboro approves new EMS contract, continuing road to establishing service through fire department

Apr. 20—BRATTLEBORO — The selectboard voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a one-year EMS contract with Golden Cross Ambulance as the town explores the feasibility of providing its own ambulance response through the fire department.

During the more than three-hour-long meeting at town hall, selectboard members defended their decision to change from their long-standing provider, Rescue Inc., after tension came to a sudden head in late March, leading the town and company to go their separate ways.

At least a dozen members of the public weighed in, both in-person and virtually, with concerns about the split with Rescue Inc., which has serviced the town for 56 years, and the process for establishing an EMS service through the fire department.

Selectboard Chair Ian Goodnow described the new $75,000 contract with Golden Cross as a "hybrid model" in which the town's fire department will receive support and training as it looks at the potential to provide its own ambulance operation. Over the next year, the town will conduct a study and a public process to analyze the feasibility of establishing an EMS service through the fire department, Goodnow said. If the process to determine whether the fire department EMS operation is feasible takes longer than a year, the town could renew its contract with Golden Cross or go out to bid for ambulance services, he said.

Under the new contract, which begins July 1 after the town's existing contract expires, Golden Cross will provide two ambulances at the fire department's Central Station as well as an advanced life support paramedic on a 24-hour basis and an additional paramedic daily between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Brattleboro Fire Chief Leonard Howard said the department has provided patient care at life-threatening emergencies in town since 2000 and arrives at a majority of medical calls before Rescue Inc. The department has two paramedics, six advanced EMTs and 18 EMTs, seven of whom are taking an advanced EMT class, Howard said. Of those staff, three are expected to attend a paramedic class this summer, he said, and another three staff are expected to be hired if the department proceeds to provide EMS services.

Currently, the fire department provides care at the scene of an emergency until Rescue Inc. arrives to take patients to the hospital, Howard said. With the new model, there will be no need for turnover of patient care from the fire department to Rescue Inc., smoothing the process, he said.

"The least amount of times you turn over patient care, the better it is for the patient," Howard said.

Goodnow described the overlap between the fire department and Rescue Inc. as "a duplication of services" because the residents pay for the department in addition to a $285,000 yearly assessment to Rescue Inc.

Town Manager Yoshi Manale said that the $285,000 assessment is more than four times what similar size towns in New Hampshire and Vermont that don't contract with Rescue Inc. are paying for EMS services.

Goodnow said the impasse with Rescue Inc., which is a Brattleboro-based nonprofit serving 15 towns, started when the town attempted to understand how the company came to that $285,000 figure. According to Goodnow, Rescue Inc. showed "clear lack of transparency" during a meeting in February when it declined to provide financial information requested by Manale.

(In an interview after the meeting, Drew Hazelton, Rescue Inc.'s chief of operations, said that he discussed finances with Manale in February but never received a request for any specific financial records.)

Then, Hazelton sent a March 25 letter to Manale, Goodnow said. In addition to indicating that Rescue Inc. would be ending service with Brattleboro when its contract ends on June 30, that letter contained what Goodnow described as unfounded allegations against the fire department and "a clear conflict of interest."

In the letter, Hazelton wrote of "poor patient turn over, gender discrimination, verbal abuse and [a] general lack of cooperation by certain members of [the Brattleboro Fire Department]."

These allegations had been previously investigated and no evidence was found to support them, Goodnow said.

Moreover, in the letter, Hazelton — who is also the chair of Vermont EMS District 13, which provides oversight of EMS providers in Windham county — said he continues to oppose the Brattleboro Fire Department's application to increase its EMS license to a paramedic license.

The department needs that license to provide ambulance transport services. Goodnow described Hazelton's statement as a conflict of interest that should not come amid contract negotiations with the town. Hazelton previously told The Sentinel he will recuse himself from any vote on the Brattleboro Fire Department's paramedic license.

Selectboard member Tim Wessel said that the letter presented "irreconcilable differences" between the town and Rescue Inc. that could not be sorted out in the roughly two months before the end of the existing contract.

"We were also now robbed of the time that it would take to properly build community support for this action which really infuriated me," Wessel said.

Even as the selectboard remained united in their support of a new EMS contract, several community members — including two previous board members — stated concern.

Kate O'Connor, who served on the selectboard until 2019, said she was upset with the board members and the town manager for the situation with Rescue Inc. O'Connor described the personal connection that she and others have with Rescue Inc., which has showed up to help at emergencies for decades.

"There are some really personal relationships that my family had with Rescue [Inc.]," O'Connor said. "That's not the reason to keep the service but its a reason to respect the service and it's also a reason why you need to respect why people would get so upset that this is happening."

She asked that the board not vote on the new EMS contract Tuesday to take a step back and reapproach Rescue Inc.

Dora Bouboulis, who served on the selectboard from 2007 to 2012, also raised concern about the public input into the process and how the process will move forward.

In a phone interview after the meeting, Hazelton, the chief of operations for Rescue Inc. disputed several of the claims made by the selectboard, including that he in any way obstructed the fire department receiving a paramedic license. He said, "the events leading up to tonight's meeting lacked significant transparency."

While Hazelton said he wishes the town the best moving forward, he said he is disappointed that Rescue Inc. will no longer be providing service in Brattleboro where it has a long history of treating patients.

The selectboard meeting came one day after the first of three public information sessions on the town's plans to contract with Golden Cross Ambulance and explore establishing a municipal EMS service through the fire department.

The next information sessions are scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Central Fire Station and Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Brooks Memorial Library.

Ryan Spencer can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1412, or rspencer@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @rspencerKS