The Town Council rejected a proposed study to examine possible regionalization of emergency and fire services.
The proposal, raised by Town Councilor Joel Martin, would have researched combining fire and emergency medical services into one service that would serve South Berwick, Berwick and North Berwick, but fellow councilors rejected it.
Two councilors said the study would be premature.
“Bringing our fire and EMS services in house makes a lot of sense to a certain degree, but there was never a needs assessment or feasibility study done,” Martin said at the June 23 council meeting.
“Other towns our size are not able to support fire and emergency services,” Martin said, citing staffing concerns, escalating costs, increasing EMS call volumes, and rising equipment and facility expenses that are affecting fire and emergency services in many communities.
In response, council Chairman John James said regionalization was tried in another area of Maine and it ended up costing the towns $3.8 million and turned into a “failure. “
Pointing out that the town’s new fire and emergency services “has only been operational for five weeks,” James said that any study would be “too soon” to initiate.
“I have no interest at all in any study until (fire and emergency services) are up and running for 12 months,” James said.
Council Vice Chair Mallory Cook suggested a “deep dive” public workshop that would feature Fire Chief Nick Hamel providing data on both past and current emergency and fire services.
“I also feel that this is something the new town manager should be very involved in,” said Cook, who agreed it is too soon for a regionalization study.
The council voted 2 to 2 to defeat the study proposal. Councilors Sam Flinkstrom and Martin voted for the study while James and Cook voted against it. Councilor Paul Schumacher was not at the meeting.
A tie vote means the study was rejected. Majority votes are needed for approval.
