The town’s ambulance and EMS budget review Monday flagged higher wages and growing maintenance costs, while officials discussed using the ambulance revolving fund to pay for equipment rather than raising the tax burden. Michael, the town’s ambulance representative, told the Select Board that wage assumptions used during budgeting rose from $26 an hour to about $30 an hour because more experienced personnel covered more shifts and turnover increased training needs. “We’re gonna be over on wages,” Michael said, noting per‑diem staffing and overtime for senior paramedics who covered multiple days a week.
The department also reviewed equipment maintenance contracts for Stryker and ZOLL devices — monitors, stretchers and ventilators — and proposed a three‑year prepayment from the revolving fund to lock in lower rates. Michael said a three‑year maintenance contract would cost about $6,200 per year, and buying a three‑year block could be roughly $20,000 in total; the annual maintenance line now shows about $8,600. He suggested the town could pay the three‑year maintenance out of ambulance revenue to reduce next year’s operating budget.
Board members asked about the balance and usage rules for the revolving fund. Tamara (town staff) provided a recent balance number during the meeting — roughly $178,000 to $185,000 depending on the timing of reimbursements — and staff clarified that requests to use the fund must be routed from the fire chief to the treasurer for reimbursement back to the general fund. Brian (finance staff) said expenses must appear in department budgets even when revolving funds are used to pay capital items, and that using the revolving fund still results in the expense remaining on the department’s operating lines for budgeting purposes.
Michael also listed capital needs anticipated over five to ten years — about $120,000 for two cardiac monitors, roughly $60,000 for stretchers, $10,000 for stair chairs and $22,000–$25,000 for ventilators — and said the current account is not formally set up as a capital reserve separate from the revolving revenue account. He told the board he and Chief Young considered not requesting a separate capital reserve because the ambulance revenue account was intended to serve that purpose.
No formal appropriation or final decision to draw from the revolving fund was made; the presentation was the department’s first pass through the budget and any requests to use revenue accounts would require the formal request path and board confirmation.
For now, town staff will incorporate the higher wage and maintenance numbers into the draft budget and provide a clearer monthly profit‑and‑loss report on ambulance revenue and expenditures on request.