Fairfax Rescue Building

As a member of rescue I just wanted to chime in on this. First for a little history. The Town and the fire department have kindly housed us since the beginning in 1979. Even then it was a strain on the fire department due to the loss of useable space for them. With the building of the new fire station the space problem was solved temporarily. We are at the point now where space is critical. Both fire and rescue have continued to grow over the years. Due to the growth both fire and rescue are storing emergency vehicle outdoors. For those of us who have lived in Vermont a long time, it is easy to figure out that this is not a good situation. If there were an emergency call during the winter it would be at least 15 minutes before these trucks were warmed up enough to get under way. Not a good deal if you are the one waiting for emergency services to arrive at your location. Last year we were able to rent garage space for the second ambulance. It was not an ideal situation. The garage was small and at a remote location, but it was heated and we made due.

This year we were given a rare opportunity. Gabe Handy who has done much development in Fairfax decided that he would like to do something for the Town of Fairfax. He approached the rescue squad with the proposition of a building of their own. The building which has been appraised by the bank at $475,000.00 will be built at a guaranteed price not to exceed $288,000.00. How is this possible you ask? To start with much of the building costs are being donated. Michelle Dufresne a resident of Fairfax and an architect, donated all of the architectural services to the rescue squad. The person we purchased the land from reduced the cost by $20,000.00. A portion of the excavating work being done was donated. A portion of the site engineering work was donated. A portion of the concrete work is being donated. A portion of the materials and carpentry costs are being donated. We hope to continue gathering donations as the project proceeds. To sweeten the deal Gabe Handy has guaranteed that the cost to rescue will not exceed $288,000.00 or he will cover those costs out of pocket. Once the building is completed we will individually recognize all those who donated.

To answer some of the questions posted. The land was purchased by Fairfax Rescue as part of the build loan secured by rescue. The building will belong to and be maintained by Fairfax Rescue which is a private non profit corporation. We have secured a 20 year mortagage to pay for the building. The town of Fairfax will bear no financial responsibility for the building. The building was designed to meet our needs for the next 30 plus years. It was designed with 3 ambulance bays even though we have only two ambulances at this time. It is logical to believe that at some point in the future the town could grow to the point that a third truck could be needed, so we are planning ahead.

As to our financial operation, most of our revenue does come from billing insurance companies for ambulance services, probably as much as 65 to 70%. Most of our costs are fixed and we are not able to reduce them. Payment from the insurance companies has been dwindling over the years so that revenue source is dropping. For a person on Medicaid it actually costs us more money to take the call than what we are reimbursed, as an example. About 15% of our revenue comes from donations and memorial contributions. About 5% comes from our subscription plan. And finally about 10% of our revenue comes from the combined towns of Fairfax, Fletcher and Westford which are our primary coverage towns.

This year our request from our towns will increase. This is in part due to the new building but in larger part due to the fact that we need to purchase some new equipment and upgrade some of our existing equipment. In an effort to keep costs down in the past we have been hesitant to spend this money. We are now in a position where we must spend it in order to maintain a high quality of service.

In the past our requests to the towns has been all over the place ranging from $10,000.00 to $70,000.00 per year. This has been a constant source of complaint for some in the town. This year we are going to move to a per capita system where all of the towns are asked to give a certain number of dollars per resident. We have quite a bit of research on this as it is a very common practice in the area. We have seen per capita rates ranging from $19.00 to $29.00 being paid to ambulance services per person served. We are looking at something on the order of $12.00 per capita which is a good value for the money. Also by using this approach the request to the towns will be pretty stable from year to year without the large fluctuations as in the past.

The greatest thing that could be done to reduce our operating costs is the addition of more volunteer members. Currently our largest expense is paying for per diem staff to cover the holes in our shifts. We currently budget $40,000.00 per year for that expense. We estimate that we could reduce that number by $10,000.00 per year for each 3 new volunteers we add. We are planning a class at the first of the year and would be happy to see you join our ranks.

In closing we can not wait for the new building to be completed. It will give us the space we need to house the ambulances, and allow the fire department to get their trucks back inside. For the rescue volunteers, they will finally have a space where they can sleep in beds when the are on call rather than on couches in an open room. With the more comfortable surroundings we are hoping we can lure more volunteers to join us. As I am not always on the forum, I encourage anyone with any questions about rescue and the new building to contact me at 849-2773. I am here from 8am to 6 pm Monday through Thursday. Mike Spaulding