At the Aug. 18 meeting of the Harvard Ambulance Service, I turned in all my equipment and handed in my resignation. This did not really take a lot of thought. The Board of Selectmen voted at its last meeting to implement billing for ambulance service to both residents and nonresidents—going totally against the board’s prior agreement not to bill residents without a town vote.
Selectmen said they went back through 2007 and found nothing about a vote being taken [on not billing residents without a town vote]. This was not voted on at any BOS meeting, but was agreed upon by all involved at a 2006 meeting—which I attended—between the HAS billing committee and the selectmen assigned to work with us. But none of this makes any difference now, as the current board says it doesn’t have to abide by anything said by past board members.
Last week’s editorial suggested we should have initiated a citizens’ petition, and take it to Town Meeting for a vote, that we who resigned did so in “protest.” I did not resign in protest. I had simply had it with the meetings with the board, and just gave up.
Back in 2005 or 2006 we were asked by the BOS to gather figures showing why we felt billing would not work at that time. I personally spoke to the heads of ambulance or fire departments in Bolton, Stow, Boxborough, and Maynard. They all said that, with the small number of runs we make, we would not make money from billing. This was all presented to the selectmen, who refused to accept our findings.
Even if this issue was resolved this year, we would just have to start all over again with the next board, since they apparently don’t have to abide by anything voted on in the past. I joined the ambulance squad more than 10 years ago when it was run by David Durrant, the way it should still be run—not by the Harvard Board of Selectmen.
I want to thank everyone in Harvard for the opportunity to serve.
Lou Skinner
Slough Road
