That means even if you have to agree that things can’t always be the way you want them to be.
I would think that by now most of us would understand that Rumford is not an Island. We have to look for ways to reach out to others communities to meet our needs. We have to work together with other communities and not just try to dictate to them. For some in our Town, that continues to be quite difficult.
If our selectmen think that they can provide Ambulance coverage cheaper, or better, than they might be justified in this holdout with Med-Care. They can’t. After we provide 2 new trucks, retain some paramedics, pay for their ongoing training and find a place to house them ourselves, we will be paying considerable more than we are now, even with the new building and we will be receiving less service. We can’t provide better service in our small town that Med-Care does with the resources they have.
BTW, what’s the time frame for doing this? Have we just put our citizens at risk?
I believe our Selectmen need to work together with other communities and not just think we can dictate to them, as we are clearly trying to do with the Med-Care situation. I encourage our citizens to call their Selectmen and ask them to sign the Inter-Local Agreement and then work with the other towns to amend the Inter-Local agreement if they want to. All the communities collaborated to create the Inter-Local agreement, we can surely collaborate to modify it.
Ask our Selectmen to make sure that they put the safety of our citizens first.
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Im glad Med-Care is soon to be gone. I talked with Pace and they can't wait to come to town.
It is my understanding from comments that Mr. Milligan made himself that if they didn't have 80% of the towns in the agreement that even towns that had signed on would have to go back and redo their contracts because all contracts at that point were null. Those small towns can not pick up the expense that Med-care loses from Mexico and Rumford.They are going to have to rethink what a new contract is going to mean to them in $'s and cents. If all contracts are null now then the time is now to re-negotiate, not after people ar scared into thinking there is no choice. I hope the town lawyers are looking into this. No one seems to remember that no ones contract is good now if what Mr. Milligan said was true. I just hope the lawyers look into this. It could paint a whole new picture. Then all the towns and Med-Care can work together for a new building because I think everyone knows they need one but the way they have gone about it is wrong.
High Five!!
Your diplomatic skills are uncanny. Your glass of water is obviously half full. This tactful approach is what med care and others should follow. I applaud you on your approach to town issues. You have made me rethink my thoughts on this issue. This isn’t a political issue (as it has been portrayed) but an infrastructure and security issue. You have made me think of the people who may not be socially politically active, but the other fine community members who will be dependant on there services. If we are to share services than we have to be cognizant of others, this is for the collective group of community members that make up the river valley. Not the so called elite few. There is no elite few, there is only one. That is us; we all need to help one another. My views on this walk a fine line because I truly believe in self reliance and personal responsibility. However our area demographics of aging citizens will require this service. We should not be self serving, but look at the big picture. Thank you for your insight and your selflessness on the basics of community spirit.
Keep up the great work, your making me proud again :-)
~B
I fully agree that right now we need Med-care. On the other hand I believe if done correctly our Fire Department could do the job just as good. When I say done correctly I mean that this is a project that would take time, it wouldn’t be thrown together because the selectmen decide not to vote in Med-care. This would be a long term project that would take some additional monies to put the correct pieces in play, then maybe the next ten year term be able to break away and do it on our own. I have heard of other towns that do it and make money doing so. Of course there will be some big start up cost in doing it, including hiring some Paramedics and maybe even seeing if some of our Firefighters would be interested in training to a higher level. The key here though is if done over a period the impact wouldn’t be as bad and it would give us as a Town the opportunity to work out any bugs, kind of like Auburn has done but on a smaller scale. I want to stress again though right here and now we need a ambulance service and there is no one out there that can currently provide a higher level of service at a more affordable price, so call you’re selectmen and tell them to re sign with Med-care.
The med-care board voted to drop the building project this afternoon. I don't see any problems with the towns signing on now. Some will want to make ammendments to the inter-local to limit board power, but that can be done later. We can keep getting great service and Med-care employees can keep their jobs. Hopefully, the Med-care management will re-visit the building idea and go about it correctly this time; Make a proposal, then ASK the voters of the towns for support.
I think we have seen just how much support Med-Care will get. Keep up your good work Med-Care. Hopefully people will actually take a look at the building you are in now and realize what has happened.
It is amazing how many people believed the scare tactics bing circulated among the townspeople. There was never a threat of us not having ambulance service. There were rumors and crazy ideas circulating, but the Rumford selectmen had contingency plans. What many don't understand is that larger services have the ability to provide coverage to Rumford (either on a temporary or permanent basis) within an hour of being notified. Med-Care has to provide 30 days notice by state law. If they had not done so, they would have had to answer to Maine EMS, who controls their license.
I heard there was an emergency plan too. I heard that Arthur Boivin was talking about buying a second hand ambulance. That was the extent of it.
I’m happy for the outcome here. The process of how it happened bothers me. We played a high stakes game of chicken with an essential public service. That affected not only our citizens but all the other communities we signed on with as well.
Rumford keeps talking about regionalization. If we want to be able to do that, we better learn how to play better with others instead of thinking we can always dictate the game to them. We have an opportunity now to work together with the other towns to improve the way Med-Care operates. Let’s show that we can do that.
I believe Eugene Boivin had the used ambulance suggestion. It is my understanding that there were plans to bring one of two outside services in if the Med-Care agreement failed. Rumford would not have been without ambulance service.
To All,
Let's try to just put this in the past and look to the future. We all had plan after plan and strategy after strategy but just let it go and take a deep breath and look at this thing globally. 20 years ago when Med-Care was formed the fire department needed a new building and it didn't happen, 4 years ago Med-Care put their building start up process on hold to enter into regional discussions and be proactive but they all failed and we still needed a facility. The past failures were the catalyst for this whole process to begin with. If in a reasonable time frame the towns can sit back down and seriously do something within a shared facility then we at Med-Care fully support that as we always have. Rumford has the history of being unilateral in nature, possessive, dictatorial, and in need of full control. 20 years ago Med-Care made it over that hurdle and has operated with an open mind and a global view ever since. The building may have not been done the way everyone would have liked but in this case Rumford may have taken many steps backwards in the eyes of other communities that may have wanted to share services. I think that towns and citizens should be very careful and cautious to enter into regional efforts which in all liklihood will be under similar inter-local agreements if they will be handled the same way as this was. It appears from what I have seen up to this point that Rumford wants to have Regionalization if they can have it in their town, under their control, with contracts written exactly to serve them (because they are the biggest) but they will let other towns pay for it to help defer the costs. I think they need to change their way of handling things and I agree that Med-Care also seemed harsh at times during our process, however Med-Care never did this due to the fact that they felt they had the power but instead because of a critical need in which the board thought they had a responsibility to act upon to ensure the viability of the company on behalf of the towns. The need for a new base of operations has not been negated by all of the recent power plays and tug of wars. Med-Care decided to look out for all of the communities instead of our own needs by ensuring that Rumford would sign so as not to cut off the service to the other 8 towns that were already on board. This was the right thing to do and for the right reasons in which we had the vision to look at this globally.
If the selectmen had a contingensy plan, why didn't they let the people of Rumford know what it was? If there were outside services that would come in on an hors notice, why didn't the selectmen let the people of Rumford know? Why were the selectmen keeping the peole of Rumford in the dark about this? If this is the case, then how can anyone trust the selectmen? Why would they let the people of Rumford fret about the emergency services that they rely on? Is that really thinking of the town? Or was it a tactic to falsely lead the people to vote the way the selectmen wanted? Did the selectmen let the people of Rumford know that the total increase to the amount of money budgeted for Med-Care was six dollars per person per year on a $100,000 home? That would be $180.00 over thirty years. How informative were they on THAT subject? Not very! In fact, when the question was brought up, the selectmen avoided an honest, straight-forward answer. Is that really thinking of the people of Rumford?
There were a number of options available, but thebother ambulance services didn't want their names used as long as Med-Care was still involved. The selectmen told you a number of times that we would have ambulance service. That's all you had to know.
"The selectmen told you a number of times that we would have ambulance service. That's all you had to know."
Mr. Saisi, this is the attitude that the citizens of Rumford are tired of. How can the voters make an informed decision without all the facts?
There is or was no plan to have any other ambulance service available as kevin said. That is just not true. The selectmen gambled with this and they were lucky that MedCae backed off.
I'm glad we still have Med-care. I think they've done a fine job serving our community and certainly wouldn't want to trade that in for another service who may not have the dedication to River Valley that Med-care does. The big issue was the building and I'm sure that will be worked out in a way that will satisfy all involved. Most partnerships are prone to have some disagreement and can be worked through if both parties work together and compromise.
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