After nearly three years of proud service with the Harvard Ambulance Service, I must resign, effective immediately. As a product of Harvard’s unique cadet program, I can honestly say that I have greatly benefited from serving you, my neighbors. Unfortunately, the current Board of Selectmen has made a relentless, unethical push to force ambulance billing upon the town without so much as a vote. Board members made this decision only after disregarding financial and logistical information provided to them by past ambulance directors. They didn’t hesitate, however, to gather and propagate unauthorized and greatly flawed statistics from other sources. In their haste to check yet another item off their agenda, they have cost each citizen of Harvard his or her right to democratic process on an important matter. This issue affects each and every one of us, and I think it is ridiculous that its fate was decided by so few. I want to make it very clear that this resignation is not because of ambulance billing. It is because of the way the selectmen handled the situation. As a citizen, as well as a volunteer, I would have no problem billing patients if the town was originally given a chance to voice its opinion. This, the selectmen thought, was far too much to ask. The fact that one of the assistant directors of the Harvard Ambulance Service has had to collect signatures and submit a petition to force this issue to a vote is absurd. This is not an issue of an undesirable end, but of the wholly unethical means through which that end was reached. At some point, the factors going into a decision must go beyond what is desired and step into the territory of what is right. It is because these town officials have treated their volunteers and citizens with such disregard that I feel I must finalize my resignation from the Harvard Ambulance Service. It has been an honor, and I wish the citizens of Harvard and the town’s public safety officials all the best.
J.P. Messina
Littleton Road
