Council weighs outsourcing EMS billing and several fire capital requests

Town staff told the council that the administrative assistant who handled in-house EMS billing resigned and recommended outsourcing rescue/ambulance billing to improve continuity and collections. Diana said the town received bids with Comstar offering the lowest percentage fee at 4% and that the three-year average revenue from rescue billing is roughly $665,000.

Councilors asked how much additional revenue outsourcing would generate; staff said year-to-date collections are down (roughly $151,000) and that a contractor would also pursue outstanding receivables. One councilor asked for the current collection rate; staff did not have that figure available at the workshop but offered to provide it.

Councilors also discussed the fire department’s capital requests. Chief John Gilroy asked to reprioritize a previously proposed $38,000 for garage doors and instead buy tri-band portable radios ($32,232 requested for three units) to improve interoperability with neighboring communities on mutual-aid responses. The chief described recent incidents where crews could not hear dispatch changes and said portable radios would reduce on-scene communication problems.

Council members questioned both the timing and cost but acknowledged a safety rationale. The chief said improved radios are part of a broader digital radio migration and that the portable radios would be compatible with the planned Scarborough radio project. No vote was taken; staff said they would return with any contract language for EMS billing and numbers clarifying cost offsets from staff restructuring.