Charlemont and Hawley officials are looking for ways to keep their 70-year-old volunteer ambulance service alive — at least until bills intended to sustain it long-term are enacted.
But town officials worry that without the legislation, the volunteer ambulance service won’t meet state regulatory criteria and fail license renewal this spring.
The service has been operating with one EMT and one first-responder driver under a temporary exemption to the state’s two-EMT rule, because like many small towns, Hawley and Charlemont can’t always find two EMTs during the week when many volunteers are working out of town.
Roughly 1,500 people in Charlemont and Hawley — plus visitors to ski areas, whitewater rafting businesses, bike parks and zip lines – rely on the ambulance service. Just last week, an ambulance responded to Berkshire East to help an injured person who was hurt badly enough to require an airlift to Springfield.
Charlemont Selectboard member Beth Bandy has said a state ambulance regulatory field supervisor has indicated the service will not get an extension of its waiver.
“Their concern is making this look too permanent,” Bandy explained.
Last year, the town filed two bills that moved through the Legislature but were blocked at the last minute because of concerns from public health administrators. The first bill would have allowed crews consisting of one EMT and a driver for volunteer ambulance services for populations of 3,000 or less.
Another bill, to levy a 3 percent recreation tax on commercial outdoor activities, including ski passes, whitewater rafting, zip lines and other venues, died in a Senate committee after questions were raised by the state Department of Revenue. The recreation tax, which has been supported by the town’s outdoor adventure businesses, was to be used to improve the ambulance service and hire EMTs.
Paying for a full-time service is out of reach, an estimated $750,000. Even paying for partial professional weekday coverage could run into the tens of thousands for towns so cash-strapped that they are considering closing elementary schools.
Both bills are to be resubmitted, possibly with revisions, this month. We support both these bills, as we have in the past, because they seem like a common sense adjustment to the realities of small town life, and we urge the Franklin County delegation, including its newest senator, Adam Hinds, to do what it takes to get them passed.
But even if the bills are eventually approved, they may not be acted upon in time for the ambulance service’s license renewal this May. So we would urge our lawmakers to apply what pressure they can to extend the service’s waiver until these bills are adopted or another solution found to protect our western towns.
The irony is that while the state regulates minimum staffing for volunteer ambulances like Charlemont’s, it doesn’t mandate the towns provide any ambulance at all. But neighbors who have taken care of one another with a volunteer ambulance for more than 70 years aren’t made that way. It’s time our Boston brethren look at the practicalities of rural Massachusetts and step out of the way of our rescue crews.
Is one EMT on hand better than two on the way? Those public health administrators might think so if they were lying on the ground, injured at Berkshire East, waiting for help.