Orrington board hears ambulance concerns

ORRINGTON – Despite alleged internal conflicts among members of the town’s volunteer ambulance service, an ambulance official took steps this week to assure the community that its access to coverage is not in jeopardy.

During Monday night’s board meeting, selectmen heard the concerns of a former ambulance service volunteer. Because the matter was not among those listed on Monday night’s meeting agenda, however, they deferred discussion until they’d had an opportunity to do some research. They agreed to revisit the issue at their next meeting, on March 26, pending the availability of legal counsel.

Among the questions board members needed answers to was what say, if any, town officials have in ambulance crew matters.

According to Town Manager Dexter Johnson, Orrington’s ambulance squad is not a municipal department. While the town provides the ambulance, the building that houses it and an annual contribution toward operating costs, the service is staffed and managed by volunteers. Selectmen also wanted to review the service’s bylaws.

During Monday’s meeting, the bulk of which was devoted to work on next year’s budget, a former ambulance volunteer raised several concerns about the ambulance service’s leadership and asked selectmen to intervene.

According to L’Easa Blaylock, seven members have left the department since John Cunningham, a member of the Orrington ambulance crew for 16 years, was named squad chief seven months ago. As a consequence of the requests for leaves of absence and resignations, she claimed, Orrington no longer could provide daytime coverage.

Among other things, Blaylock also claimed that one volunteer had been suspended and another terminated without being given an opportunity to be heard.

Cunningham, who attended Monday’s meeting, said that the organization’s bylaws prohibited him from discussing the matter with the media. He referred questions to James Goody, the ambulance board’s president.

On Tuesday, Goody confirmed there had been several departures from the crew but attributed them to a “variety of reasons,” including burnout, increasing demands on volunteers’ time, and the risk and stress associated with the work. He said the remaining dozen or so members would pick up the slack.

At least two members left for reasons completely unrelated to the service’s leadership. According to Goody, one member left because he and his wife now spend the bulk of the year in Florida. The town manager cited the instance of another who left at least partly because of the death of a spouse.

Goody took steps Tuesday to assure the public their safety was not in jeopardy, despite the recent loss of ambulance crew members. For coverage during shifts the Orrington crew is unable to staff, Orrington for years has depended on its mutual aid agreements with the ambulance services in Brewer, its primary backup, and Bucksport.

Goody said that Brewer’s service, which is able to offer paramedic-level service, is staffed around the clock. As a result, the Brewer crew is sometimes able to respond as quickly as – and sometimes faster than – volunteers responding from home.