Wiscasset Ambulance Service lost out to North East Mobile Health Services to provide emergency medical service to Woolwich, according to Town Administrator Lynette Eastman.
Residents voted on the options at the Woolwich annual town meeting on May 8.
The vote means Wiscasset will miss out on net revenues Wiscasset officials have estimated at around $20,000 for providing EMS to Woolwich for the coming fiscal year.
“It could have actually gone either way, but I think what really made the people vote in favor of North East Mobile Health Services, or maybe vote down Wiscasset, is it’s uncertain,” Eastman said.
Because Wiscasset residents would not vote on providing EMS to Woolwich until town meeting next month, Woolwich would have needed to call a special town meeting if Wiscasset voted against it, Eastman said.
“Where we’d have been? We’d have been totally without an ambulance service,” she said.
People were also concerned about the Wiscasset Budget Committee being against the move, and the pressure to make Woolwich responsible for any non-collectable debts resulting from service in their town, Eastman said.
North East has served Woolwich for the last nine years and has never required the town to pay for non-collectable debt, she said.
There were just too many unknowns for a comfortable vote in favor of Wiscasset Ambulance Service, Eastman said.
Roland Abbott, the director of Wiscasset Ambulance Service, said he holds no animosity toward North East because of the vote and Wiscasset will continue to provide mutual aid to Woolwich.
Woolwich has been working towards operating its own full-time ambulance service, and local emergency medical technicians recently started covering EMS calls on the weekends, according to Woolwich’s EMS Director Dana Lindsey.
By not choosing Wiscasset, Woolwich may have missed the opportunity they needed to expand their EMS, unless North East agrees to continue allowing Woolwich to cover EMS calls on the weekends in the new contract, Abbott said.
“Good luck to them,” Abbott said. “I hope everything works out well for them.”
(Ed. Note: This story has been corrected to include the correct date of the Woolwich town meeting.)
