By Cameron Levasseur
Bangor Daily News
AROOSTOOK COUNTY, Maine — An Aroostook County ambulance service is now able to provide better care thanks to a new ambulance worth more than $450,000 it purchased with federal grant funding.
Central Aroostook Ambulance Service, which services the towns of Mars Hill, Blaine and Bridgewater, put the ambulance on the road late this summer. It’s taller, wider and longer than the other two ambulances in its fleet, and expands the equipment available to the relatively new ambulance service, which was founded in 2020.
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“It’s a Cadillac to the ambulances,” Central Aroostook Ambulance manager Lee Farley said. “It’s the largest box you can get for an ambulance. It’s basically a one-ton chassis.”
The ambulance is built on a Ford F-550 chassis cab and features a series of “bells and whistles” that better the patient experience and improve the working environment for drivers and paramedics.
Those features were on display Friday afternoon during a visit from U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who is the chair of Senate Appropriations Committee, which creates the legislation that allocates federal funding.
“I just think this is exactly a great use for federal funding to supplement all that you’re doing at the community level,” Collins told the service’s employees and board members. “It’s just amazing. It almost drives itself.”
The effort to get the funding for the ambulance began in 2023 with Blaine town clerk Janet Bradbury. It was passed by Congress as a part of that year’s appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and related agencies. The nearby town of Ashland purchased a near-identical ambulance with 2024 federal appropriations funding.
“It’s quite an asset to the community,” Bradbury said Friday. “I hope I never have to ride it.”
When the vehicle’s back doors open, it automatically lowers down to make it easier to pull the stretcher out. Making that process even more efficient is a power cradle, which extends the stretcher on a track system out of the back of the ambulance and eliminates manual lifting for paramedics. That system is also in the service’s other two ambulances.
The vehicle has liquid suspension, making for a smoother ride, as well as four-wheel drive, which Farley hopes will prevent it from getting stuck in driveways during the winter, a predicament that the service’s other ambulances have gone through.
The ambulance’s arrival marks a significant milestone for Central Aroostook Ambulance, which has now reached Farley’s goal of having three ambulances, meaning the department can provide full coverage even if one vehicle is out of service.
Mars Hill, Blaine and Bridgewater launched the ambulance service together five years ago after Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital stopped providing 911 services through Northern Light Medical Transport, formerly known as Crown Emergency Care.
Members of the towns sit on an advisory board for the service, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Central Aroostook Ambulance has responded to around 350 and 400 calls each year since, Farley said. It has three full-time employees and several part-time staff members.
In January the service will begin serving Westfield as well under a new contract with the town just north of Mars Hill.
That contract should keep the number of calls the service is responding to at a similar level as in previous years, Farley said, especially since Northern Light Continuing Care, a nursing home in Mars Hill, closed to reopen a facility in Presque Isle. The nursing home and Westfield have similar call volume, he said.
“It’s all come together,” Farley said. “We’ve been fortunate for the last five years. We’re still growing.”
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