Lyndon Rescue Budget

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Created on Monday, 29 January 2018 21:19
Written by Kiernan Brisson

lyndonrescuethumbnailLYNDON - The town of Lyndonville is preparing for the most important day of the year when it is in regards to the town as a whole;  this day is none other than town meeting day.  The Lyndon select board has been hard at work creating and compiling all the items to be discussed by the town, and they are also working very hard on putting the finishing touches to the town budget.

 

Among all the items that are going into this year's budget, the one item of great importance, and the one item that has caused a lot of extra hours of research and stress is the Lyndon Rescue budget. Of course, the extra stress and research is important, it is all part of the job; but what about the budget is causing so much extra work for the select board and Lyndon Rescue? Simply put, the ambulatory service is asking for a large increase in their budget. A Seventy-Eight percent increase from last year's budget has brought Lyndon Rescue to ask for a $105,764 increase in funding, but Lyndon Rescue assures that every cent is needed. "We've discovered there were some things that were not previously included in our budget," said board President John Kascenska, "we've also experienced some increases as well, dispatching services is one of them."
Director of Operations, Jon Bouffard, also had a lot to say about the budget increases. "It didn't seem fair, we weren't paying our EMT's enough for their services, with this budget increase, the starting rate will be $13 and hour. Now when people come in they are paid in full." Mr. Bouffard also discussed that the other driving force in prices were the fact that the cost of service was becoming more and more expensive. Items like Epic-Pens and Glucose shots have only become higher in price, and these items are required for the ambulatory service to be able to do their job. If they can't pay for these items, then they can't save lives when these items are needed.
The select board was reached out to by Lyndon Rescue in December, and since that time the two have met on multiple occasions to work out a budget that could be agreed upon by both parties, and at the select board meeting on the night of the 22nd, the select board adopted the budget into the town plan. Marty Feltus, chair of the Lyndon select board, along with her fellow members knew that a budget like this was unavoidable for proper ambulance services. "It was a matter of recognizing the actual cost of running a quality ambulance service for our residents, a recognition that the service was perhaps not adequately funded in the past and a recognition that Lyndon has a contractual relationship, long-standing, with Lyndon Rescue.