PUTNEY — Will Rescue, Inc. remain the town's emergency care provider? According to this week's Selectboard meeting agenda, “Ambulance contract/pre-Town-Meeting discussion” is the first item of new business.
The Selectboard reportedly has invited representatives of Rescue, Inc. and Golden Cross Ambulance to the meeting, set for Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 5:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
Also on the agenda: Certificate of no appeal or suit pending: a yearly signing for Listers; discussion on reducing the number of members of the Development Review Board from nine to seven; a report on a Building Communities Grant award; a financial report; details on a vacant building on Gassett Road; street light and facility use policies; and the Town Hall fire escape.
Brattleboro-based Rescue Inc. is a nonprofit, independent service with ambulances and emergency medical technicians responding to calls in 15 communities in southern Vermont and New Hampshire.
The organization says on its website that it handles more than 5,000 emergency responses per year, trains approximately 1,000 people a year in first aid and CPR, promotes child safety through its Windham County Safe Kids Coalition, and operates a Technical Rescue Team that provides high-angle and swift-water rescue services.
It also has approximately 40 nationally certified EMTs working 12- and 24-hour shifts throughout each month.
Dale Girard, of competitor Golden Cross Ambulance, introduced himself to selectmen on Jan. 8, saying his privately owned company, based in Claremont, N.H., stations two ambulances in Westminster, will add a third if needed, and serves Rockingham, Westminster, Athens, Grafton, and North Walpole and Langdon, N.H., according to meeting minutes.
Golden Cross's website adds the company has 25 years of experience, 30 employees, 14 ambulances, and five wheelchair vans.
Selectmen said Jan. 8 that they were working on the 2015 budget and had not decided how to proceed with this essential contract.