A day Selectmen have dreaded for some time has arrived: the Hampton-Chaplin Ambulance Corps has made the difficult decision to end its six decades of volunteer service to the two towns. The decision is not a thoroughly surprising one. First Selectman Allan Cahill has broached the possibility with the Board of Finance several times over the course of the last few years as area towns have increasingly been forced to look beyond their volunteer organizations for emergency coverage.
In a correspondence dated September 18 to Cahill and First Selectman Bill Rose of Chaplin, Ben Brockett, the HCAC Chief, announced the Corps’ decision to “cease operations as of April 1, 2020…This provides six months of notice to the towns to seek a viable and sustainable BLS ambulance service to serve the towns’ needs in the years ahead.” Brockett also thanked the Selectmen “for the open dialog as it has helped to guide this difficult decision.”
The Ambulance Corps began its services in 1955 with 15 members, an annual cost of less than a thousand dollars, and one renovated bread truck donated by the American Legion, equipped with stretchers, a resuscitator, and bandages, and housed in a resident’s barn. That year the Corps responded to 24 calls. The latest Annual Report notes that the 15-20 volunteers trained and certified as EMT’s and EMR’s and supplied with the latest medical equipment answered 405 calls with the Corps receiving $28,000 from the town this year for its operating costs.
What has remained constant throughout the 65 years of the Corps’ existence is the expert service residents have come to expect with the rapid response and the familiar responders. There’s something so comforting to all of us who have required their services in knowing that assistance was minutes away, and that our well-being was in the capable hands of our neighbors, with several of the town’s families generationally answering the call.
Coverage, however, especially during the night, was becoming increasingly difficult. A proposal for the town to compensate individuals for coverage was suggested to, and well-received by, the Board of Finance at the beginning of the budget cycle, but the Corps withdrew the request. Since that time, the Hampton and Chaplin Selectmen have met with Corps leaders to discuss future services.
“Hampton and Chaplin have been very fortunate to be covered by professionally skilled volunteers for decades,” Cahill said. “The Selectmen will pursue all options to protect the community.”
What sort of services, and the costs, remains unknown. What is certain is that an appreciative town extends deepest gratitude to the present and past corps members. For more reasons than we can name, your services will be missed.
Dayna McDermott