The Glenburn Town Council has ended an agreement with its primary provider of ambulance coverage because the independent rescue service allegedly violated the terms of its contract, according to Town Manager Dan McClung.
Councilors voted 4-0 to terminate the contract with G&H Ambulance at a special meeting on May 21. The town has instead asked Northern Light Medical Transport to start providing ambulance coverage to Glenburn residents.
At the meeting on Tuesday, McClung said that G&H Ambulance had breached parts of its contract by having “discrepancies on [its] insurance policies,” according to video from the meeting. The service added Glenburn as a co-insured member of some of its insurance policies, creating extra liability for the town, according to McClung.
[Subscribe to our free morning newsletter and get the latest headlines in your inbox]
“The contract is very clear that if any guidelines are not met or are breached, the town has a right to terminate the contract,” McClung said.
Melissa Smart, the deputy chief of G&H Ambulance, declined to comment. The organization’s attorney, Sarah Newell of Eaton Peabody, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
No members of the public were allowed to make comments during the Town Council meeting.
G&H Ambulance continues to provide ambulance coverage in Hudson, according to the Hudson Fire & Rescue Facebook page.
Glenburn was 3 1/2 years through its five-year contract with G&H Ambulance, McClung said. It now has a verbal agreement from Northern Light Medical Transport to provide emergency medical transportation and is deciding what to do for long-term ambulance coverage.
[Hermon council includes $210K for ambulance service in budget going to voters]
Northern Light Medical Transport used to be called Capital Ambulance and is part of the Brewer-based Northern Light Health system.
G&H Ambulance is a nonprofit organization that had a net income of $35,014 in the 2015-2016 year, according to ProPublica. It had $391,525 in expenses and $426,539 in revenue that year.
About $265,000 of those costs were to compensate employees and administrators. The organization provides around-the-clock coverage, but its website does not indicate how many employees it has.
The group has providers who are trained up the paramedic level, according to its website.
The decision came in the same week that another Bangor-area town, Hermon, decided to raise about $210,000 in new funds for its own nonprofit ambulance service.