By Matthew Higbee
Connecticut Post Online (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
DERBY, Conn. — To leaders of the Valley Emergency Medical Service, the recent flap over its decision to station an additional paramedic vehicle in Oxford rather than Seymour comes down to a misunderstanding. But the mayors who sit on the Valley Council of Governments, which approved taxpayer funding of the service expansion, see a larger issue. They say VEMS gave the mayors one plan when it asked for the money, but changed it without telling the council after the checks were cut.
“These mayors cannot go to the taxpayers and ask them to pay for paving sidewalks on First Street and then turn around and pave Second Street. That’s illegal. That’s the problem here,” said Richard Dunne, executive director of VCOG, during a discussion between the mayors and VEMS officials this week. Last month, Seymour First Selectman and VCOG Chairman Robert Koskelowski questioned both the placement of the paramedic vehicle and the date when the expanded service took effect. Koskelowski and the other mayors said they approved funding the expansion at $20,000 per town based on a March 2005 presentation by VEMS board member Jason Perillo. At that meeting Perillo said the vehicle would be placed in Seymour and the service would start Jan. 1, 2006.
VEMS Chairman Jerry Schwab, who is also chief of Oxford Ambulance, told the mayors that the expansion was not fully implemented until August. But Schwab defended the plan, which he said conformed to a study commissioned by VCOG.
“Go back to the consultant’s report. It’s in the recommendations that the vehicle would be in Oxford,” Schwab said. “We never deviated from anything.”
Schwab added that Seymour still had not paid a $20,000 bill to VEMS for a special bundle-billing service it provided.
Dunne said that regardless of the study Schwab cited, the mayors paid for the plan presented by Perillo. Joseph Bennett, Griffin Hospital’s EMS coordinator and an ex-officio member of VEMS, disagreed, saying the vote was for an expansion to lower response times equally to emergencies across the coverage area. “We’re talking about a difference of 3 miles in where the vehicle is parked,” Bennett said. “People in Seymour are benefiting from the expanded service.”
“Not as much as if it was in Seymour,” Koskelowski replied. VCOG requested response-time data from VEMS before it takes any action.