BRATTLEBORO-Three months since fully taking over local ambulance services, the town's fire department has spent 90% of its annual overtime budget as it struggles to hire enough staffers to handle calls.
"Our challenges are multifaceted," department officials wrote Oct. 4 in their first quarterly report since assuming emergency medical services on July 1.
A year ago, critics of the municipal takeover asked how the department could add to its responsibilities when two-thirds of its members - 16 of 23 - had left since the change was proposed in 2022 amid questions by the public and Vermont EMS peers who warned of their own hiring challenges.
Responding in July 2023, Fire Chief Leonard Howard reassured the Selectboard "we will be full-staffed" by the next month - just before the board unanimously approved the switch to a municipal model over the objections of what current chair Daniel Quipp acknowledged was a "vocal majority" of residents.
But a year later, none of the department's three platoons have a full complement of 10 members each, according to its website.
"Gone are the days when we had extensive waiting lists for applicants," department officials wrote in their report. "Today, positions often go unfilled, and we see increased turnover, particularly among early-career personnel. The lack of qualified staff drives up overtime costs as those with the appropriate qualifications - such as AEMTs [advanced emergency medical technicians] and officers - are in short supply."
The department, with a $204,837 overtime budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, has already spent $185,129 of it in the first quarter alone, officials wrote in their report. Administrators said they've sometimes dropped their duties to respond to calls in hopes of lowering costs, although they acknowledged the problem isn't easily fixed.
"Unfortunately, our recent efforts to hire and train new personnel have not produced lasting results," officials wrote in their report. "Despite extensive training for the most recent recruit class, none of the members remain employed with us today."
Howard, speaking to the Selectboard at its Oct. 15 meeting, added of the ongoing openings: "I can see it being a normal thing until we figure it out."
The question of local ambulance coverage has sparked discussion since the spring of 2022, when the Selectboard voted with little notice or public debate for a transition plan to study whether the town should pick up EMS coverage.
At the time, local leaders claimed the proposal would not only cost less than longtime provider Rescue Inc.'s $285,600 annual fee but also reap double or triple that sum in revenue - assertions that haven't proven true.
Instead, the department so far has spent $1.36 million on the takeover, according to municipal figures. The town has mailed $905,690 in bills to ambulance users in hopes of receiving reimbursement but doesn't know how much it will actually collect from individuals and insurers.
Responding to the report at the Oct. 15 Selectboard meeting, former chair Dick DeGray and Town Meeting Finance Committee member David Levenbach asked local leaders to provide the public with more financial information.
Quipp made the same request to the fire department.
"We'll see how that actually plays out," Quipp said of the insurance reimbursement situation.
This News item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.