Ambulance Comments

Chief Benjamino made a very convincing argument for the serious under staffing of the Middleboro FD.

Chief Benjamino did not make a very convincing argument for the potential revenues received from each ambulance run.

Is it possible to get an acronym handout before these meetings?

Why is a firefighter on dispatch? Makes no sense to me. Is it a union thing? Seems like it would be more cost effective to have civilian dispatch.

I have not quite figured out all the intricacies of being a call firefighter but it seems to make some sense to significantly upgrade their wages and supplement each shift with call firefighters. Is this another union thing? Seems they could staff North and South with two fire fighters and call firefighters.

I just don’t consider Medicare plus 100% or 200% as realistic. Are all insurers really going to pay that much? We are going to trust numbers set by government regulators and the insurance industry?

Look like a union meeting of firefighters Monday night.

Some of the questions seemed staged especially the one directed by a fire captain to his chief. Real softball.

EMS Committee report will be interesting.

Is one week enough for FinCom to digest all those numbers?

Former TM Jack Healey had a vested interest with his son a firefighter. Maybe it gives him more insight or maybe a slanted view? Don’t know.

When you are on FinCom and then speak as a private citizen it reminds me of Marsha’s mad dash from behind the desk to the podium.

Very polite audience on a potential volatile subject.

Mention of the size of the town in 1985 compared with today regarding staffing but was anything mentioned about call volume changes?

Two new trucks valued at 1.4M so maybe an expenditure of 500K or so a year isn’t that bad?

What exactly is the tipping point regarding potential yearly shortfalls? What is acceptable? What can we - as taxpayers - live with?

The chief spoke of union give backs. I won’t hold my breath on that.

If you were ever going to have a coronary that was the place to have it.

I checked online and an ambulance isn’t cheap. These babies go for $100,000 - 150,000 easy. No doubt we’ll get the $150,000 one.

Will an ambulance service be a foot in the door legislation? Will we in a few years need maintenance people? Other support personnel? Add on a body here and a body there?

What exactly will we get from Brewster? Seems like they’ll be adding to the tax rolls.

Is that great Helicopter Pad at the old St. Luke’s still buried in weeds?

Is it possible to hit some local businesses on this? Any exotic taxes? Maybe the town can get a few ambulances and Charlie can claim they are recycling trucks? Take it out of the trash tax.

How about our friends at Overcharge Rate Payers G&E helping out? They have their little trust fund of about 5M. Kick in an ambulance.

Is there any way they could actually grab CPA money for this? Doesn’t look like it but there is always the weasel factor.

Chief Benjamino was getting a little tired the last hour or so. Chief did a great job lasting for what amounted to a questioning marathon. Looked like he needed a nice ice tea.