A budgeting error had Wilton under-request allocations from the towns that contribute to its ambulance costs. And although the additional request amounts hover at just above $1,000, at least one member of Lyndeborough’s Select Board saying that Wilton should swallow the cost of their mistake.
At one point, the Wilton Ambulance budget proposal included an option to hire an additional full-time paramedic. Currently, the department only had one full-time employee, the Ambulance Chief, Gary Zirpolo. But a dearth of part-time help had Zirpolo picking up an excessive amount of shifts to fill the gaps, and an additional full-time employee was suggested to help take shifts while at the same time smoothing out the schedule with a second steady presence at the department.
However, the Budget Committee eventually decided adding not only the salary but the benefits for an additional staff member were too strenuous this year. But when the full-time paramedic was cut from the budget, wages that had been shifted out of the EMT salary line – from shifts that would have been expected to be picked up by the paramedic – weren’t put back into the budget, leaving the overall budget short by about $7,000. And those numbers were what were then given to the other towns that support the ambulance.
Wilton, Lyndeborough and Temple all share costs for ambulance services. The ambulance bay is located in Wilton, and Wilton bears the biggest piece of the cost – paying 55 percent, with Lyndeborough picking up 25 percent and Temple 20 percent.
That means the approximately $7,500 difference means an increase of about $1,300 for Lyndeborough. But the mistake was caught after Lyndeborough had already held its budget hearing. While it has been suggested by Select Board members that the budget could be adjusted at Town Meeting to accommodate the change, at least one member is voicing the opinion that Wilton should swallow the cost for its mistake.
Select Board member Lee Mayhew said he was not in favor of amending the budget on the Town Meeting floor, saying that he believes that Wilton has the capacity to find the money in its budget, or to hold off on an additional hire for a month or two to make up the difference.
The Temple Select Board, however, received the news in time to amend their proposed budget in time to present it to voters at their budget hearing, and have allocated the additional funds already.
It’s not clear what the outcome will be if Lyndeborough refuses to pay the additional cost.
“It was an oversight on our end, and we understand that they had already made some decisions in their budget process,” said Butcher. “We’ll have to work it out somehow as the year goes on.”
Butcher said that the decision not to add a second full-time member of the department this year was a “budgetary concern” and not due to a lack of need.
“I still think there is a need for another full-time person,” said Butcher.
“It’s nice to have part-time help, but there are ongoing operational things that I think that the ambulance director could use assistance on, and we are still pursuing a full-time paramedic option in the future.”
In the meantime, however, the department will move forward with additional part-time hires.
“[Ambulance Director Gary Zirpolo] and I have been, over the last several months, working on a fairly aggressive recruitment campaign, and have added some additional paramedics and EMTs to the staff. We hope to be fully staffed shortly,” said Butcher.
He added that the department has added six part-time hires as a result of this recruiting push.
Butcher said the additional hires won’t have a significant impact on the budget, because they will be picking up hours that are currently being covered by Zirpolo, shifting existing costs rather than adding new ones.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.