KEENE’S FIRE DEPARTMENT and EMS services are in jeopardy and consequently so is public safety.
Since 1874, the City of Keene has operated its own fire department where firefighters have served the city and surrounding communities faithfully and dutifully without exception. Now, 46 firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics also operate four advanced life support ambulances. We respond to more than 5,500 service calls per year, arriving at 86% of scenes in fewer than 480 seconds. Not only do we meet the gold standard developed by the National Fire Protection Association, but more importantly, we’re able to keep our citizens and personnel safe.
Like any municipal service, our fire department relies on many factors and funding sources to operate safely. Revenue generated from ambulance transports gives us the crucial tools to provide essential assistance to our community. Without this revenue, it would be impossible to maintain adequate staffing and resources to provide our citizens and surrounding areas with these much-needed integrated services, putting our community’s public safety at risk.
Enter Cheshire County EMS (CCEMS). It is touted as an enhancement of emergency medical services. It is our understanding that the CCEMS business plan uses American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to subsidize its overhead. This plan allows them, in our opinion, to substantially underbid contract fee agreements between the City of Keene and surrounding communities — a threat to our well-established fire and EMS services.
It is also a very questionable use of federally allocated funds, if you ask us. It’s alarming that fiscal responsibility, transparency, and ethical practices seem to have taken a back seat to the fortune of a few select individuals.
One doesn’t have to look far to question the motives here. In a meeting of the Cheshire County Commissioners, Chairman Jack Wozmak held a vote to determine an hourly rate meant to pay for a consulting firm that would develop the CCEMS business model. Then, he recused himself from a second vote, in which Municipal Resources Inc. — a company that employs Chairman Wozmak — was awarded the contract.
The truth is that emergency medical services have never been more complex, both in the delivery of service and patient expectations. And never before have we faced such substantial recruitment and retention issue in our highly skilled labor force. The ARPA funding passed by Congress was a means to provide temporary relief, if properly administered, but was never a means to solve the long-term issues plaguing EMS systems throughout New Hampshire.
CCEMS has marketed its service as an enterprise fund, allowing them to gain traction quickly. But no one talks about the long-term impact on communities when this model becomes unsustainable. With a $5.1 million budget, it seems unlikely that an $8,000 contract agreement with the Town of Westmoreland, offset by one-time ARPA funds, would sustain CCEMS long-term. The City of Keene will be left to pick up the pieces for a failed business model.
As it stands, CCEMS has already proven that “plan A” wasn’t successful. In short order, they have diverted from their original model of collaborating with the city to provide a sustainable EMS system, while restraining from competing with the city for municipal contracts. In a letter to the Keene City Manager dated February 1, County Administrator Christopher Coates writes that they will “rescind our previous statement of non-competition with the city as initially envisioned,” and that they will continue to visit all 22 municipalities in Cheshire County to keep them apprised of their progress and capabilities.
This seems like less of an attempt to engage in a harmonious partnership with the city, based on a desire to provide quality EMS services, and more like a desperate attempt to right the ship. A far cry from their original pledge.
If anything, CCEMS has taken steps to destabilize EMS in the county. A lack of honesty to the county delegation and the taxpayers is deeply concerning.
Your firefighters, EMTs, and dispatchers vow to continue to serve the City of Keene and surrounding communities with the same professionalism as we have for the last 150 years, but we are deeply concerned about our ability to provide you with vital fire and EMS services if CCEMS continues to compromise our city’s staffing and emergency response.
Daniel Nowill is president of Professional Fire Fighters of Keene, Local 3265. He lives in the city.
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