CAMDEN — This evening, May 29, there will be a public informational meeting regarding Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Camden, Hope, Lincolnville, and Rockport. The meeting will take place at the Camden Opera House at 7 p.m. The EMS Review Team will present its recommendation to the selectmen regarding which EMS company the towns should contract with to provide emergency medical services. The Review Team will present information regarding emergency medical services and the data they evaluated leading up to their recommendation. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions.

Each town will hold a follow-up meeting (Camden, June 4; Hope, June 11) to hear citizens’ comments and opinions regarding emergency medical services in each community and the company being recommended. The selectmen will decide at those subsequent individual town meetings what they will recommend at town meetings.

Read more

• Camden, Hope, Lincolnville, Rockport 'plowing new turf' with ambulance decisions

• Camden First Aid seeking $407,000 in funding from four-town taxpayers

• Hope gives preliminary nod to Camden First Aid; talks continue with four towns

• Camden, Lincolnville, Rockport to circulate requests for emergency services proposals

The towns have been discussing EMS since last fall, when Camden First Aid Association informed them that the nonprofit faced a serious financial situation. Camden First Aid has been providing ambulance service to the towns in one form or another for the past 77 years. While originally it was part of the Camden Fire Department, it became a nonprofit in the 1990s, and most recently was contracting individually with the towns for nominal annual contributions.

 But last winter, the select boards heard just how drastic the organization's fiscal outlook had become. On Feb. 27, town officials at a joint meeting were told that Camden First Aid needed $407,000 this coming year to meet budget, up from the $56,000 requested collectively from the four towns last year.

To complicate the issue, the request came just as the four towns were beginning to put their budgets together for their own fiscal year 2013-2014. Those budgets are to be approved at town meetings in June, but the process of considering the EMS price increases began to be debated in March by budget committees and select boards. The Camden-based nonprofit laid out its requests, seeking $174,000 from Camden, $129,000 from Rockport, $77,000 from Lincolnville and $27,000 from Hope.

While Camden First Aid submitted its contribution requests, the town select boards likewise directed their town managers and administrators to circulate a request for proposals from interested EMS providers. Four companies responded: Camden First Aid, Delta Ambulance, Northeast Mobile Health Services and Sterling Emergency Medical Services, the latter of which bid only on Hope. (Currently, Hope is serviced by two EMS providers, Union Ambulance to the west of Alfred Lake Road, and Camden First Aid to the east).

Then, the towns collectively created an EMS Review Committee comprising two selectmen from each town, the town manager/administrators, and interested citizens.

According to the Review Team:

• The RFPs required a range of information regarding each organization, from the services they would provide to the community, response times, and the qualifications of the personnel to financial capacity of the organization.

• The Review Team (three representatives from each town – see below) was formed to review the RFPs and to recommend which company the four towns should contract with to provide EMS

• The Review Team interviewed the thre organizations that submitted proposals.

• The criteria that were used to evaluate the proposals were:  Scope of Services, Experience, Qualifications, and Cost.  It was explicitly stated that cost was not the only factor.   

• The May 29 meeting is intended to be informational.  It is a public meeting.  Citizens will be invited to ask questions regarding the proposed recommendation.

• Each of the towns will hold  a follow-up meeting in their own community to hear from the citizens  (Do they agree, disagree, why, etc)

• Each Select Board will decide whether to accept the recommendation of the EMS Review Team.  They will vote on that prior to Town Meeting.

• At each  community’s Town meeting, citizens will vote on the amount they want to approve for EMS services.