The writer is a Town Meeting member representing District 8.
BRATTLEBORO-As part of Brattleboro's FY26 budget redevelopment process, the town manager issued a memorandum to the Selectboard on April 18. On page eight of that public document, the town manager claimed that the cost to the town, if Rescue Inc. were our EMS provider for FY26, would be $477,143.
This gross misrepresentation of Rescue's cost was used to crow about the amount of money that the town is saving by using the fire department, instead of Rescue Inc., as our EMS provider.
On April 29, Drew Hazelton, chief of operations for Rescue Inc, wrote to the Selectboard to correct the record.
"In recent weeks we have once again been witnessing incomplete, inaccurate and misleading information about our organization as Brattleboro town staff attempt to justify the expenses of the new fire-based ambulance service," he wrote.
Chief Hazelton informed the Selectboard that the actual net cost to the town, if Rescue Inc. were our EMS provider in FY26, would be $255,846.
As we all remember, the decision by the Selectboard to sever the town's 56-year relationship with Rescue Inc. was contrary to the will of the people. Now we are paying the price for that ill-advised decision.
The fire department became fully responsible for delivering emergency medical services in town on July 1, 2024. And the budget that was rejected at Annual Representative Town Meeting last March was the first budget since the town took over EMS.
Is it merely a coincidence that our town budget is larger than it used to be when Rescue Inc. was our EMS provider? The revised budget, now approved by the Selectboard, represents a 10.8% increase in municipal taxes.
At the May 1 Selectboard meeting, when I rose to speak about the budget and the cost of EMS, the Chair repeatedly banged her gavel and refused to let me speak. The true cost of a fire-based ambulance service is not "germane" to the budget re-development process, she said.
I am reminded of the famous line from the movie The Wizard of Oz, when Toto pulls back the curtain exposing the deception, and the Wizard cries out, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
William E. Kraham
Brattleboro
The writer is a Town Meeting member representing District 8.
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