LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town ambulance will continue to operate under a three-month review period and continue to implement changes to gain membership and financially stabilize the service.

 

The Selectmen agreed Monday night to hold off on making any changes to town ambulance support and asked Lanesborough Ambulance to update the board with progress monthly.

 

"There is nothing better than hometown service," Selectman Henry Sayers said. "You know where to go and there is nothing better than that but we just have to look out for our tax dollars.

 

"But we would like to pull it together and keep it hometown."

 

The Selectmen have been considering a proposal to contract with the private County Ambulance, which was met with resistance by the Fire Department that runs the volunteer ambulance service.

 

The town's ambulance service has been facing financial strife for the last few years and has slowly depleted its reserves.

 

However, after making some changes and gathering numbers, ambulance representatives asked the board for a chance to continue to implement positive changes.

 

"We want to keep going, we want to recruit help and we have some innovative things in the works," firefighter PJ Pannesco said. "We feel confident that the care we are providing along with ALS (advanced life support) is the best out there and we would like you to give us the opportunity to continue doing what we do."

 

Pannesco presented numbers that Deputy Chief Butch Garrity said reflected data from the Berkshire County Fire Dispatch Center log book, the ambulance log book, and the ambulance's run sheets. He said they found that in 2016, the serviced covered an average of 49.9 percent of Lanesborough hospital transports.

 

He said this was double the 25 percent originally reported.

 

"I'd hope you would agree that we are definitely getting out more than 25 percent of the time, which I know was a number thrown out there," he said. "We do about 50 percent. That's not the best but we want to do more."

 

He added that the early numbers may have been somewhat skewed because sometimes County provides aid when Lanesborough needs extra support.

 

"The level of care needed may require the next level of EMT so it is possible that they were with us 5, 6, 7 or 8 times over 12 that we transported," he said. "But we still transported them to the hospital."

 

He added that both Lanesborough and County even reported the same refusal one time.

 

"I am not faulting anyone in a chain, but at the same time, when you are looking at raw numbers, how many times did County respond to Lanesborough?" Pannesco said. "Well, there are two times where no one did anything."

 

Deputy Chief JD Hebert said another issue is scheduling and that when calls come in when no volunteers are available, it just goes to County.

 

He said they are trying to turn this around with more active recruiting and plan to bring on two new emergency medical technician volunteers with daytime availability.

 

Also, the service plans to make policy changes that would allow volunteers to come on as an ambulance volunteer without becoming a firefighter, too.

 

Town Manager Paul Sieloff asked if there were ways to block off certain times when it is known that there will be no volunteer availability. He said calls during this time could go right to County.

 

Garrity said it would only work if it was very clear. He said it would not work if the dispatcher had to check a schedule before relaying a call. 

 

"Anything like that becomes problematic for the dispatcher because … you have to look at a book and see what time it is then dispatch," he said. "In the meantime, police could be calling in plates or there could be another 911 call. Now all of the sudden it's five minutes before another one of those calls comes out."

 

The Selectmen were also concerned about purchasing a new ambulance, which is estimated at more than $200,000.

 

"You can see our concern. You are looking at an ambulance in the near future and the money isn't there," Sayers said. "We have an offer on the table for a free service so the townspeople won't have to kick in any money."

 

Pannesco said if the service continues to improve, it should be able to afford an ambulance in a few years, maybe on a lease-to-own contract.

 

The Selectmen asked for periodic updates and that ambulance representatives come back to a future meeting this summer.

 

"Keep doing a good job," Selectman Robert Ericson said. "Our lives depend upon it."