Lanesborough Eyes Full-Time Ambulance

By Al HartheimerLanesborough News
11:53AM / Tuesday, April 08, 2008Print Story | Email Story

LANESBOROUGH — When you need an ambulance it is very important, sometimes critically important, that an ambulance responds to your call. This is a brief overview and history of ambulance service in Lanesborough.

Prior to Jan. 1, 2008, Lanesborough was serviced during the day and on weekdays by two companies, American Medical Response, a nationwide company, and County Ambulance, a company whose sole business is serving Berkshire County. Evenings and weekends service was provided by the Lanesborough ambulance with volunteer, unpaid emergency medical technicians. There was sufficient service.

On Dec. 31, AMR stopped servicing Berkshire County. Since Jan. 1, the consensus of a number of knowledgable people is that additional service to that provided by County Ambulance is needed during the day. Since then the Lanesborough Ambulance has provided the additional service, funded by the town.

State law requires that an ambulance be staffed by two EMTs. It is not possible in Lanesborough to staff the ambulance full time with volunteers. To staff it with paid EMTs will cost about $65,000 a year. A warrant article to that effect will be offered at the town meeting on Tuesday, May 13.

When the ambulance is used there is a cost for its use. This cost is billed to the client who then bills his insurance company, if he has insurance. It is not known what portion of the annual cost can be recovered in that way.

The Lanesborough Ambulance also bills for its service. Historically, the annual deficit has been about $8,000. This deficit has occurred because some of the people do not have insurance and others simply have not paid.

Comstar, the company that does the billing for the Lanesborough Ambulance, usually bills the client for three or four months and, if there is no response, stops billing. Consideration is now being given to other methods of collection, such as using a collection agency or going to small claims court. No decision has been reached regarding this.

Information provided by Lanesborough Concerned Citizens Newsletter. Harheimer credits Fire Chief Charlie Durfee for giving him lots of help with the ambulance history. To receive the weekly newsletter with more Lanesborough news, e-mail ahartheimer@yahoo.com.

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When will the truth really be told??? Prior to Jan 1, 2008 AMR rarely if ever responded to calls in Lanesborough, County Ambulance had been primary back up for many years. Lanesborough Ambulance has always been the primary provider of ambulance service for Lanesborough, day, evening, night, weekend. County Ambulance provided frequent primary backup service to Lanesborough due to Lanesborough having problems getting volunteers to respond. The so called knowledgeable people who state additional service is needed since the departure of AMR have no knowledge. The facts are County Ambulance has provided service that is better than prior to Jan 1, 2008 due to better deployment of resources. Response time is better. How many times has backup by County Ambulance to Lanesborough been unavailable since Jan 1, 2008? 0 times County Ambulance responds to as many calls after 4 pm as they do during the day so this full time plan only will be for the daytime so County will still need to respond after 4 pm until 8 am. County Ambulance will still respond much of the time full time crew or not to provide paramedic intercept service not available from Lanesborough Ambulance. $ 15,000 in personnel costs for the first 3 months will not be covered even 50% by the patient billings done. And yes the ambulance can tell you what they will recoup in annual billings by looking at their historical data but it will certainly be well below the cost of providing the service. The fact is the problem is with a lack of volunteers in Lanesborough, not a lack of outside resources. Truth should be at the forefront of this campaign; we taxpayers deserve to hear the truth. We should decide if we are willing to shoulder the cost of hiring full time EMTs who eventually will be costing us disabilities, benefits, retirement, etc for a mere 8 hours a day coverage without the scare tactics. The truth will set you free!
from: Concerned taxpayer	on: 04-08-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

"The truth will set you free!" Indeed. The TRUTH is, you are thinking with your wallet instead of your common sense. How much is the money you saved- mere dollars per year- going to be worth to you as you watch your husband/wife/grandparent/son/daughter/sister/brother/friend turn blue on the floor in front of you? Money over safety- it's the American way! The people of Lanesborough are demonstrating that they have no more concern for public safety than ValueJet!
from: EMT	on: 04-08-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

County Ambulance is manned by a bunch of Slugs. They know little about Emergency Medical Care and are to weak to lift stretchers. Lanesborough should hire fulltime EMT's. Yours or your loved ones life may depend on it!
from: Byran McAndrews	on: 04-09-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

Lanesborough Zoning Board Welcomes New Member

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
03:27PM / Wednesday, September 02, 2026

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. – The Zoning Board of Appeals has some new faces.

Last week, the Zoning Board met to restructure its board.

William Matthiesen was elected Chair. He is stepping in following the resignation of Mark Seigars after a heated ZBA meeting in February.

Gwen Miller was welcomed onto the board after being elected from the select board the day before. Chair Deborah Maynard had said she previously worked with Miller on the Planning Board.

"She is a very, very smart woman who is up to date on all the laws and everything else that goes around," Maynard said.

Miller said she wanted to volunteer for the town, but she is no stranger to working with the town. She moved to Lanesborough in 2017 to raise her kids and was recently serving as Chair of the Planning Board.

She has also served on the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission's regional issues committee for the town.

According to her LinkedIn, she has much experience with town planning, recently working with the town of Lenox as their land use director and town planner.

She said she hopes to bring a nice attitude to the board.

"Just an even keel, a polite demeanor and some objectivity."

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