At a recent Select Board meeting, new Ambulance Chief Steven Desrosiers suggested to the board that the ambulance purchase a used vehicle to act as a rapid response vehicle. When ambulance members are on-call at home, they would have the vehicle with them. The idea, explained Select Board member Kermit Williams, would be to have a minimal amount of town-owned medical equipment in the vehicle, so the EMT or Paramedic could begin medical treatment immediately if they arrived ahead of the ambulance. 

“If they’re there first, and the ambulance hasn’t gotten there, they don’t have the equipment to deal with a heart attack or something else where time can be of the essence,” said Williams. 

The Select Board approved a proposal to bid on a used four-wheel drive vehicle that Desrosiers identified as a likely prospect to be used as a rapid response vehicle, up to a cost of $8,000. The bidding went above the town’s maximum, however, and the vehicle went to another bidder.