With Charlemont Ambulance no longer the town’s primary service provider, Hawley officials are actively pursuing options for an alternate primary service provider.
In the interim, the town will be receiving primary coverage from Shelburne Falls EMS, according to Hawley Selectboard Chair Hussain Hamdan. Charlemont Ambulance will, however, respond on a mutual aid basis when possible.
“It will be business as usual,” Hamdan said. “We have a long mutual aid list.”
The Selectboard chairs for both towns previously explained that for the last decade, Hawley has not paid a fee to Charlemont for ambulance service due to there being no formal agreement between the two towns. For a brief period prior to 2009, Hawley made small contributions to the ambulance service each year.
Conversations began in 2019 to resolve the issue and establish a fee agreement. According to Charlemont Town Administrator Sarah Reynolds, letters were sent to Hawley in December 2020 and again in February and March 2021, but were met with no response.
Earlier this year, Hawley and Charlemont reached a stalemate over the issue after Charlemont requested Hawley pay $7,080 for ambulance service in fiscal year 2022, and Hawley — though not against the concept of paying a fee — refused to do so without first reviewing Charlemont Ambulance’s financials, which Charlemont in turn refused to provide.
In an email sent to the Charlemont Selectboard earlier this week, Hamdan wrote that Hawley did, eventually, receive Charlemont Ambulance’s financials, as a result of a public records request made by a private citizen. The town appropriated the funding at Annual Town Meeting in May, contingent on signing a contract both parties could agree to.
This spring, having not reached an agreement with Hawley, Charlemont went through with its license renewal process, and for the first time in recent history, Hawley was not included as an area of primary coverage.
Hamdan said after “repeated refusals” by Charlemont to invite Hawley to one of its Selectboard meetings to discuss and sign a contract, the Hawley Selectboard extended an invite for the board to join Hawley at its meeting on Sept. 28. However, Charlemont Selectboard officials did not show.
According to Charlemont Selectboard Chair Marguerite Willis, Charlemont had tried to arrange matters with Hawley, but in correspondences, were met with no response or Hawley “taking our requests and twisting them around.”
Reynolds said that ultimately, the communication breakdown was the biggest factor in the decision to cease primary service coverage in Hawley.
“The problem was in the communication and what was expected as far as how the agreement would work out,” she said, noting Charlemont had “clearly stated” the fee agreement would not be contingent on a contract.
Reynolds said Charlemont was prepared to continue offering the service as it had for several years, but Hawley “thought it needed a more intense contract than that.”
“We couldn’t quite get past that hurdle, either,” she said.
Hamdan said the town is exploring a possible long-term relationship with a number of providers, including Shelburne Falls.
“We also continue to have the support of an outstanding mutual aid system including ambulances from Colrain, Greenfield, Adams, North Adams and Highland, based in Goshen,” he said. “So residents may rest assured that if they call an ambulance, they will get one.”
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne