HADLEY — Hadley’s assessment for its ambulance service could go up substantially based on ongoing negotiations for a new contract with the town of Amherst.
“Amherst is looking for a significant price increase,” Select Board Chairwoman Molly Keegan said at Wednesday’s Select Board meeting.
Keegan said the starting point for continuing to have Amherst Fire Department ambulance’s serve Hadley is “well north” of $200,000.
That is a sharp rise based on the $135,000 Hadley is paying this year, Keegan said.
Town officials had hoped for a smaller increase as they seek a new two-year contract that would also include a one-year renewal period. Amherst ambulances handle about 1,000 calls annually in Hadley.
The negotiations are happening after Hadley put out a request for proposal last fall to identify a public or private vendor to handle the town’s medical calls, and got an offer of $295,000 from ActionEMS.
That proposal included faster response times, opportunities for Hadley firefighters to do ride-alongs and begin building up their skill set and stationing an ambulance in Hadley.
Action EMS has a location at the corner of Route 9 and Cross Path Road in Hadley, and also provides service for Holyoke.
It’s uncertain how soon an agreement will be reached, but Keegan said it should be soon, with Hadley’s annual Town Meeting set for May 3, and Amherst’s annual Town Meeting commencing April 30.
“I would quite frankly hope within the next week or two we’d have a resolution,” Keegan said.
Town officials have set an objective of the arrangement, with either Amherst or ActionEMS, as setting the stage for the town to begin offering basic medical service through its fire department.
“ActionEMS would help us to get to providing basic, to bridge to our own ambulance service,” Select Board member Joyce Chunglo said.
Keegan said it is considered too challenging to immediately move from Amherst ambulance service to its own in-house ambulance service.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.