By Traci Hastings
The Chronicle
SCOTLAND, Conn. — The Scotland Volunteer Fire Department started 70 ago with one mission — to offer fire protection in the area.
Now, the department wants to get back to basics and focus on that mission alone.
Last month, department officers informed the Scotland Board of Selectmen that, by next year, emergency medical transport services will no longer be offered by the volunteer department.
The department plans to release the public service area to either the Town of Scotland or its designee.
The SVFD was formed in 1947 with volunteers who were read to fight any local fires.
Over time, like other departments in the area, emergency medical technician services were added to the roles of the department and a volunteer ambulance service was offered.
“We are unable to provide adequate, trained and experienced staffing for EMS transport,” said SVFD Chief Jason Beaumont in a written statement to selectmen, adding officers had agreed to “attempt to maintain our program until the end of fiscal year 2017-18, or until such time as the Town of Scotland has established a replacement emergency medical transport program.”
However, Beaumont cautioned, “we cannot guarantee our ability to provide a reliable and worthwhile emergency transport service during this time
period due to a lack of adequate staffing.”
SVFD President Raymond Arnott Jr. said it was hard enough to find volunteers willing and able to assist their fellow citizens during an emergency.
But, he said, the added requirements of having to take and maintain different training to be able to provide the assistance was an added deterrent for many.
The cost is not just financial, but personal, at the expense of time away from family and work and, in particular, the training for emergency medical services is especially intensive.
“We’re not just getting the volunteers,” Arnott said, adding that although a common complaint among local volunteer departments is availability, staff is most limited during day-time weekday hours when existing volunteers are out of town at jobs, the shortage is becoming even more critical in Scotland. “It’s a shortage that’s 24/7, 365 days a year.”
Selectmen have begun planning with the Canterbury Board of Selectmen on a way to address this issue, proposing the two towns share a regional ambulance service and include pay for emergency medical staff to be funded out of the municipal budgets for both towns.
The officials are still only in the preliminary stages of reviewing how such a plan would work.
Although fire department officials stated that, in the future, emergency medical transport and services would not be a feature of the department, they emphasized they would work with selectmen in the interim.
Beaumont also said, rather than continue to spread themselves too thin, the department would focus on putting available manpower to the best use.
“Our focus will turn to overcoming the issues of providing a top-notch fire protection and rescue services to the town, a challenge that is deserving of, and will demand, a majority of our time, effort and limited resources,” Beaumont said.
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