“I’m not for one side or the other exactly, I’m for both sides which isn’t going to work,” Wethersfield’s Liz Kirkpatrick said.
The question over the future of Wetherfield’s EMS provider continues to spark debate throughout town.
“I believe that the ambulance service should be local,” Wethersfield’s Grace Bubser said.
Wethersfield Emergency Medical Services has provided the town with ambulances for decades.
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“We’ve been here for almost 70 years serving the town for free,” Wethersfield Ambulance Assistant Chief Robert Pelletier said.
Earlier this year, the town sent a letter to the Department of Public Health saying Aetna Ambulance Service is “better suited” to be the town’s primary service area responder.
“I’ve read the letter and we were notified of the letter after it was already filed,” Pelletier said.
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In a message, Town Manager Fred Presley said the proposed change came after Wethersfield ambulance “decided to change their structure from volunteer to paid employees and to alter the arrangement with Aetna that had been working well for about 20 years.”
“We went from a volunteer service to a not for profit service and we almost tripled our staff and our vehicles and our responses,” Pelletier said.
Wethersfield Ambulance argues its level of service is adequate for the town’s needs.
“We’re in the process of providing more advanced EMS services using our own people,” Pelletier said.
But the town manager has said that without the change, response times could be longer.
On Wednesday, the Department of Public Health held the first of multiple hearings to decide which service the town will use.
“I’ve been picked up once by the volunteer ambulance and they seem perfectly good,” Kirkpatrick said.
