BRATTLEBORO — Recently, the union of the Brattleboro Firefighters issued a letter expressing its support for a town-operated ambulance service. Although we deeply appreciate the work of our firefighters in protecting us from fire and responding quickly to emergency medical events in town, we regret the timing of this endorsement by the union.
Few citizens in town have read the full AP Triton report, which describes four options for an ambulance service. There has been no public meeting other than AP Triton's presentation of its report at one Selectboard meeting. At this meeting, there was not a full analysis of the report, and there was only enough time for the public to ask one or two questions.
Now that the firefighters have expressed their preference, we are concerned that it may be hard for citizens who want to fully explore the costs of all options to be open about their concerns and preferences because they may fear appearing as if they don't appreciate all the excellent work of the fire department.
I hope that the new Selectboard will soon schedule meetings about the AP Triton report and make written copies of these reports available, so that citizens can be fully educated and thus help the Selectboard make an informed decision.