Selectmen press for mediator in mutual aid impasse

LEBANON - Lebanon selectmen have put the issue of Sanford's termination of mutual aid into the hands of town counsel and are pressing for a third party mediator to help settle differences over a contentious of $2,000 sole responder fee enacted by four area ambulance services, including Sanford, in December.

After decades of having mutual aid service in place - in which neighboring towns help each other in emergency situations like fire and rescue - Sanford led the charge late last year to enact the sole responder fee, which levied a $2,000 surcharge whenever Sanford was the sole responder on a Lebanon call in which Lebanon Rescue could not field a response.

Sanford and other neighboring ambulance services reasoned that too many of their assets and personnel were being used to service Lebanon, while their first obligations had to be the safety - and the tax burden - of their own residents.

Lebanon Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson on Monday said he hoped the issue might be resolved, perhaps by using Maine EMS as a third-party mediator.

The other three ambulance services that aligned themselves with Sanford - Milton, North Berwick and Frisbie EMS - have not pulled the plug on their mutual aid services to Lebanon.

No sole responder fees have been paid thus far to any ambulance service.

However, the loss of Sanford EMS stings the most. They were counted on heavily for coverage in East Lebanon, including an area of Route 202 from the intersection of Little River and Depot roads to the Sanford line that sees more than its share of serious car accidents.

Thompson said Sanford sent an email threatening the cessation of mutual aid a couple of weeks ago, so it wasn't a complete surprise when it was made policy last Friday.

He said Sanford's demands were to have any $2,000 surcharge paid within 60 calendars days of an incident.