Your Voice: A letter from Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole

Jason Cole

To the editor:

We wanted to clarify concerns brought up by the same group that has consistently had issues with the rescue department and our funding.

Voters overwhelmingly supported the rescue department becoming an enterprise account for operating expenses. We have proudly been able to go to the taxpayers and ask for no funding for the ambulances and our annual operating budget.

This year, we were initially told we needed to set aside $1,600 for insurances and they removed “rescue” from the appropriation request as we were ready to pay what we were told the costs were (and please note, that Assistant Chief Jason Cole WAS NOT a Selectman at the time this price or the cost was derived).  

Then we were told it would actually be $6,000 and we would have a bill for it. We never got a bill. The town did get a general bill and paid it. All three selectmen have been working diligently to have the towns insurance company separate all the towns insurance, so that the costs can be added to each department to show the true costs. They cannot separate it due to blanket policies is what they are saying. The budget committee has asked the rescue chief to pay $7,000 as a “good faith” estimate, which is about 5 times what the initial costs given were. At a recent meeting between Selectmen and the insurance company, the insurance company said it could be anywhere between $4,500 and 6,000 but there was no real way to derive the number.  The rescue chief has requested that the Selectmen transfer $7,000 from the rescue line to the town revenue line. ALL town money, including ALL rescue department money, is in the “general fund”. So basically, what needs to be done is the town write itself a check out of the same account, but different line number and deposit it back into the same account but add it as revenue for the town. This will then ensure the money is removed from the rescue enterprise account and the rescue paid more then the estimate, but paid what the budget committee came up with for a number. As far as the dispatch is concerned, that has always been a separate line and the costs are made up by the dispatch center based on census and a formula they use.

Recently, a resident and budget committee member falsely stated that since the town pays anything towards the rescue that we can no longer have an enterprise account. Just like he said when the voters overwhelmingly supported helping the EMA, Fire and Rescue Departments to buy narrowband radios that because the voters approved paying for the radios, that the rescue could no longer have an enterprise account.

This same resident asked Selectwoman Gerrish to independently ask the Maine Municipal Association to provide a legal opinion to show that it was illegal. The Maine Municipal Association did provide an opinion, and to this resident’s dismay, it proved that anything the voters approve above the enterprise funding is perfectly legal, as long as the voters approved it, which they did. The rescue chief has always thanked the town for paying for the insurance or dispatch or the one time radios and has hid none of this.

We are fortunate to have a great group of responders who are resilient to the constant bashing by a few. Each year, each department around losses people, and we did lose some members last year, just as other departments have. I am not aware of any department that loses members from retirement, moving away, new family commitments or the simple fact of not agreeing with everyone. We may lose more members just like other departments have. But as a department, we have gained many new talented people who care about this community and have had amazing responses to calls, thanks to these dedicated men and women. We have been averaging 6 people to calls, which is amazing for volunteer departments.

The rescue corporation has sat back and let the few continue to squabble about our department and our members, but we wanted to clear the air. We encourage anyone with questions to contact us. The insurance will be paid and we are paying more. There has been no illegal activity and the residents are still getting award winning, quality and passionate emergency medical services that are being paid for by donations and ambulance revenue and saving the town hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We appreciate the support of all the residents and stand strong behind the members who do so much for the community.

- Jason Cole,

Assistant Rescue Chief