North Adams Ambulance To Service Readsboro
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According to General Manager John Meaney Jr., providing the service will add only 50 to 75 additional calls per year and will not hinder the coverage the company already provides but will provide a great help to the town.
"Our main goal was to provide a service to Readsboro that they need,"Meaney said. "It should not impact any of the current services. We will be able to absorb those calls."
Readsboro officials approached the city ambulance service a few years ago and since then both the service and the town have been studying the viability of it, Meaney said. Once determining that the service could take the additional calls, the Readsboro Select Board put it to a town vote.
"They wanted a town-wide vote and we had a lot of support," Meaney said. "We're also training the Readsboro Fire Department to become first responders."
Previously the town was serviced by Whitingham, Vt. Meaney said the difference is that North Adams responders have paramedic training whereas the Whitingham Ambulance Service does not.
"They were looking for a service that we could provide," Meaney said. "We're just here to help people."
On an ideal day response time will be 22 minutes, Meaney said, but training the fire department to be first responders will help fill in that gap. The ambulance service is doing the training on a volunteer basis, he said.
According to the minutes from a Readsboro Select Board meeting earlier this year, town officials expressed concern about two calls handled by the Whitingham service – one was handled by the Deerfield Valley Ambulance and the other reportedly took a long time.
While there will be some fiscal benefits to handing the additional calls, Meaney said that did not influence the decision to add the town.
"We don't actively recruit or compete for business. If we're asked to take it on and we can, we will," Meaney said.
The service added coverage of the town of Monroe about five years ago. North Adams ambulances currently report to calls in the city, Clarksburg, Florida, Monroe and Stamford, Vt.
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