Ledyard — Town officials expect a 15-year contract with American Ambulance will eliminate the gaps in coverage that were being experienced under Ledyard Volunteer Emergency Squad.

Under the contract finalized June 12, American Ambulance is required to respond to all ambulance calls within Ledyard and "shall provide a Basic Life Support capable ambulance on a 24/7 basis." The contract is unclear on whether American Ambulance has to have employees on-site at all times but Mayor Fred Allyn III said that's the expectation.

"The understanding is they are there 24/7, we set the crew up on a first-floor office at the front of the building, and there's a crew there round the clock," Allyn said.

The Town Council and mayor were concerned with a slew of missed calls in back-to-back weekends and with LVES' tendency not to have staff in-house during all hours of the day and night. The volunteer department was disbanded at the end of June. All three paid town employees who worked for LVES are working in the dispatch center or the fire department.

For the first year of the contract, the town will pay American Ambulance $75,000. During that first year, American Ambulance will be analyzing payers and call volume before deciding how much the town should pay the agency from the second year of the contract through the fifth.

From the sixth year of the contract through the 15th, and any extensions thereafter, American Ambulance will be deciding on annual payments from the town. If the town and American Ambulance ever disagree about this payment, an arbitrator will make the final call. Under the contract, the annual cost cannot exceed $75,000.

A notice of contract termination from American Ambulance or the town must come at least 90 days before the end of the first term or an extension. A provision in the contract asserts that Ledyard and American Ambulance can enter into two additional five-year terms after completing the first.

Hiring American Ambulance as an independent contractor means Ledyard no longer gains the profit from billing, as it did with LVES, a quasi-town agency. Allyn noted that town leaders budgeted about $210,000 a year annually for LVES, but it's possible that taxes could increase slightly to pay for a private company EMS.

"If we went on a pure tax basis," Allyn said, taxes would go up "0.068 mill each year, so it's really, really minimal."

The contract states that American Ambulance also will conduct high school CPR and other programs for teachers and students "at a mutually agreed upon price" and will provide standby service.

"Some of the services are kind of à la carte, so if there are things we do want to do additionally ... we may have to pay for them," Allyn said. "If they do a CPR class, there will be a charge. LVES has provided them in the past and did provide them at no cost."

Mutual aid and ambulances

Perhaps the biggest question with the contract is what would happen with mutual aid. There was some concern American Ambulance would vie for control over who gets the mutual aid call and choose another American Ambulance crew rather than a closer town's service.

While the town runs the dispatch center, "we can choose to relinquish those calls so that they go directly to American" if comfortable enough with the service, Allyn said.

"You could very easily say for that fourth call we're just gonna deploy our own unit from Griswold and it's 25 minutes away, and we said, 'No, we don't want to see that happening,'" Allyn continued. "American agreed they would not do that, they don't want to see that happen either, because we can't have assets coming from 25 minutes away just for the sake of ... the opportunity to bill for that."

American Ambulance is dedicating its own ambulance to the town, in part because all of the company's ambulances are Mercedes Sprinters, meaning its drivers can seamlessly shift between vehicles.

"We had two rigs before with LVES but, in all fairness, we struggled to get one rig out the door, let alone two," Allyn said.

Per the contract, if American Ambulance takes its dedicated vehicle out for transport, the agency has agreed to make sure it has a replacement in town, ready for another call.

The town is attempting to sell the ambulance it owns. Five companies are interested, Allyn said.

Possibility of regional service

It's conceivable that one day North Stonington or Preston couldn't support their ambulance services and opt to enter into a regional agreement, in which case, "if you have a regional opportunity and mutually agreed to it, I would like to see the $75,000 charge go away," Allyn said. American Ambulance still would be the primary EMS provider but a new agreement would be negotiated, and Allyn said that in this event, Ledyard shouldn't have to pay the $75,000 annual fee because American Ambulance would be able to bring in revenues by billing for services in other towns.

Allyn said he is pleased with the contract, if only because it clearly lays out what the town does and doesn't do for American Ambulance, whereas the town's relationship with LVES was more murky. Take, for example, the issue of insurance — under the current contract with American Ambulance, the town is not liable for personal injury or property damage.

"There was a lot of cross-pollination between LVES and the town, yet they weren't really a town department," Allyn said. During LVES' tenure, "some insurances were provided by the town but others weren't; it was just odd."