By Josh Davis
Baltimore Sun
SOMERSET COUNTY, Md. — A blunt exchange at a Somerset County Commissioners meeting this week underscored a deeper fear behind the county’s emergency services overhaul: that after already being forced to absorb Princess Anne’s ambulance operations, Somerset could be pushed to rescue another struggling local system.
County leaders have been wrestling with EMS instability for more than a year, after Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Company announced in 2025 that it could no longer sustain ambulance transport because of soaring costs, shrinking membership and weak reimbursement rates.
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The county’s takeover of the former Princess Anne EMS operation has since exposed wider tensions over money, transparency and whether Somerset functions as one county or as competing “upper” and “lower” ends.
Historically, Princess Anne handled the north end of the county while Lower Somerset EMS covered the south, with Princess Anne operating as a volunteer fire company with paid EMS staff and Lower Somerset’s staffing costs largely supported through Crisfield.
That strain spilled into the open this week as Commissioner President Charles Laird and Vice President Randy Laird sparred over ambulance costs and local responsibility.
Randy Laird argued the county was spending disproportionately on one end of Somerset.
“There’s two ambulance squads in the county … We’re paying a lot more on the one that’s on the upper end, a lot less on the one on the lower end,” he said.
Charles Laird pushed back, casting the dispute as part of a larger problem that has dogged Somerset for decades.
“But here’s the problem with Somerset County — we’ve divided this county too long. We’re one. It doesn’t matter about the north. It doesn’t matter about the south … I’m gonna say this today because I’ve been thinking it for 20 years — until we work as one, we’ll never have nothing.”
Still, both men suggested the county’s patience with struggling local systems has limits.
“I wish they would come up with a plan,” Charles Laird said.
“Their plan is for us to take it over,” Randy Laird replied.
“That’s not much of a plan,” Charles Laird said.
The comments echo issues that surfaced publicly in February, when the Somerset Commissioners held a special session with the county volunteer fire association.
According to meeting minutes, association leaders said four of the county’s six mainline fire companies were struggling. They raised questions about EMS budgeting and oversight, and said communication between volunteer companies and county EMS had broken down.
The minutes also show county officials were already trying to draw a line between supporting local companies and fully absorbing them.
George Nelson, president of Lower Somerset Ambulance Squad, told commissioners his company was “at a crossroads,” and that “they don’t want to be in the county system, or be a county employee.”
Nelson said they were debating buying a new ambulance, but didn’t want to go into debt if the county was prepared to absorb the Lower Somerset EMS operation.
Charles Laird said they should “continue to function as is” and later added the county was there to help keep local companies going, not take them over. When Randy Laird said he believed Crisfield wanted the county to take over EMS services, Charles Laird said that was not a county priority.
This week’s exchange may be the latest sign of a county still trying to stabilize emergency coverage while old resentments over geography and fairness remain unresolved — and of a larger question facing Somerset: whether it can build a sustainable emergency response system without being forced to patch together one local crisis after another.
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