Adams Ambulance to Keep Crew in Cheshire Weekdays
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Adams Ambulance will aid the Cheshire Fire Department and cover the town during week days.
Fire Chief Thomas Francesconi told the Selectmen on Tuesday that Adams Ambulance has agreed to operate an ambulance out of the fire station Monday through Friday.
"We are ready to go ... and it won't cost the town a thing," he said. "The logistics are all worked out and they will start whenever."
The department has been struggling to find volunteers available to take medical calls during the day. With most of the volunteers at work, the town has had to rely on mutual aid.
Francesconi added that Adams Ambulance often takes the calls and having an ambulance right in town would lower response times.
The ambulance will be staffed with a paramedic and an emergency medical technician and will cover the station weekdays from 8 until 5, when Cheshire volunteers are more available. It will not handle transfers and will be dedicated to Cheshire.
Francesconi said if they are out on a call and another call comes in, Cheshire volunteers will be toned as well as mutual aid.
The Selectmen unanimously approved the new agreement.
"I think it is a win-win situation and it gives us better medical coverage," Selectwoman Carol Francesconi said. "It's a good solution."
In other business, Town Administrator Mark Webber told the board that a major focus of a recent town Complete Streets meeting was improving sidewalks so the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission will do a sidewalk assessment.
"It would be an assessment of current sidewalks and where we are lacking and needing sidewalks," he said.
The assessment will be grant funded.
The town signed on to the state's Complete Streets Program last year in hopes of capturing grant money to improve mobility for vehicles and pedestrians alike.
Webber said a specific problem is near Pine Valley Mobile Home Park where there is more pedestrian traffic but fewer sidewalks.
The town can pick 12 different projects that the state will rate and decide if it will fund. The town could receive up to $400,000 to fund a project.
Highway Superintendent Blair Crane said he would also be curious of projects that would reduce traffic speed in some areas of town and make some roads more accommodating for bicycle traffic.
"We want to slow down traffic and there are places in town where we have a lot of bike traffic," he said. "Those are things that seem to pop up over and over."
In Crane's department report, he said he purchased a 40-foot refurbished storage container to alleviate some seasonal storage issues.
"I can take all of the summer stuff .. put it there and we don't have to trip over it all year," he said. "Come spring, I can put all of the winter stuff in there ... everything will be out of the elements."
Crane added that 50 percent of the Highway Garage's lighting has been replaced by efficient lighting.
"It's considerably brighter in there already," he said.
The town entered into an agreement with National Grid to subsidize and install efficient LED lighting. Crane said the entire garage should be complete by the end of the week.
Before closing, Selectman Robert Ciskowsi said he was concerned about cars parking along Route 8 in the breakdown lane near Whitney's Farm Stand.
"I counted 13 and the week before there were six and I know they have made a great effort with their signs ... but it is not a safe situation," he said. "I want to be supportive of local businesses, but I just don't like the safety aspect of it."
Crane suggested physically making it impossible to park in the lane by placing traffic cones.
"Put cones down the white line close enough together so you can't get between them and literally you make it physically impossible unless you run over a cone to get into the breakdown lane," he said.
Tags: ambulance service, complete streets,
