Village Finalizes Transition of Control of East Hampton Ambulance, Over Final Round of Objections

The East Hampton Village Board last week unanimously approved the creation of a new Emergency Medical Service Department that will officially oversee the management of the East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance.

It is the final step in the tumultuous seizure of control of the ambulance corps from the volunteers who had overseen its operations for 50 years.

The village has cast the move as a logistical one that will make management of the ambulance and its operations more efficient and professional. Volunteers have decried the change as insulting to the dedication of those who have served the ambulance for decades and dispiriting to those who answer calls day and night without compensation.

At least a dozen volunteers — about a quarter of the total volunteer corps — have resigned from the EHVA in recent weeks.

On Friday, April 21, some of those who remain offered the Village Board a final chorus of regrets, worries and criticism over how the transition of power over the ambulance from the East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance Association to the new EMS Department has gone.

On the agenda that day was the official public hearing on the proposal, as well as a motion to approve the measure shortly thereafter — the comments that were to be heard presumed to be of little consequence to the decision of the board.

“The way this was done is heartbreaking,” said Sandra Vorpahl, a 25-year volunteer. “If the corps had been approached back in July when this all started … I believe a solution could have been made. But since July, the members were lied to. They were told nothing was going on, they were told there were no changes.”

Amanda Thompson, who has been a volunteer for the EHVA for only a year, handed the board members a petition with 319 signatures that she said opposed the creation of the EMS Department, as she approached the speakers podium at Friday’s Village Board meeting at LTV Studios in Wainscott.

She said that she worried that with the departures of volunteers and the resignation of two paramedics recently, the village would not be able to keep up with the summer crush of ambulance calls. She harked to the village assurances that it is recruiting new volunteers and hiring more staff, but she doubted whether those new recruits could be trained in time — having just completed her own certifications as an EMT and ambulance driver.

“My concern is for the summer — how are you going to get everyone up to speed?” she said. “I got my pager on March 6 last year, and I just got my EMT exam. Even if I’d taken a hybrid course, I don’t think I could have gotten it by September. Driver certification took four months. I want to make sure everyone is going to be held to the same standard.”

Bess Rattray, a volunteer EMT, said that change would have a “profound impact” on ambulance service, because the loss of volunteers would mean the need for more paid personnel.

“Volunteer service is the best bargain you could have,” she said. “I feel like there is a sense in certain quarters that volunteer service is subpar or second class in some way. Nothing could be further from the truth. In terms of patient care, it’s actually a positive good to have somebody there who lowers your blood pressure — who, when they walk through the door, you feel safe with.”

She said that the replacements with paid personnel will be a startling economic cost to residents, especially those in the protection districts outside the village who pay for ambulance service from the EHVA.

Ambulance volunteers who have been critical of the plan have often traced Mayor Jerry Larsen’s desire to seize control of the ambulance services to an emergency at Main Beach last summer, during one of the popular Tuesday night concerts, that required another ambulance company to respond. Shortly afterward, the Village Board introduced the hiring of paid EMS responders to augment the volunteer ranks, which rankled some and started the rift between the EHVVA and Larsen.

Doreen Quaranto, who serves as chaplain for the ambulance corps, said that the mutual aid that night was made necessary not because of anything having to do with the availability or response time of volunteers, but because the company did not have an ambulance available — because two of its fleet, which is owned and maintained by the village, were out of service for repairs.

Larsen has said publicly that response times during the day on weekdays when many volunteers are at work have flagged and that the hiring of paid EMTs to man the ambulances during the day was a necessity to ensure that calls were answered quickly. The mayor, who took the reins of the village in late 2020, has also said he’s been frustrated by the decision-making process of the ambulance corps under the EHVAA oversight, citing the tradition of all the volunteers having a vote on any change in policy.

Whatever the reasoning, the start of the move to transfer control of the ambulance took place secretively. With no public discussion or notice, the village enlisted an attorney who specializes in fire and ambulance service matters to reach out to the state agency that issues certifications for ambulance services and get the certification for the East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance switched from the volunteers’ association to the village itself.

Even ambulance personnel did not learn that the switch had taken place until December. Volunteers immediately cried foul, but just a few weeks later the village unveiled its plans to create the EMS Department.

After an outpouring of complaints last month, the village did walk back its plans to make the ambulance company chief positions appointed by the Village Board. The chiefs will continue to be elected by the volunteers.

Village Trustee Carrie Doyle said she regretted that the village fumbled the interpersonal component of the effort to streamline oversight of the ambulance. “I do wish [it] hadn’t happened like this,” she said on Friday. “I agree with Amanda [Thompson] that the transition could have been handled better, and I’m very sorry that this was not handled better.

“There’s been a lot of emotions — we didn’t hear each other,” she added.

The motivation for the creation of the EMS Department, she said, was not to expand the number of paid personnel or to adopt a policy of billing patients’ insurance for ambulance services, as some have said.

“We need our volunteers, we want our volunteers and we need to do better to make you understand that,” Doyle said. “I promise that as a board we want to work with you and do better to show you how much we appreciate you.”

Larsen was less contrite, reiterating his frequently stated desire to organize the ambulance similarly to the village’s fire department and police department, of which he was chief.

“We are where we are,” he said. “Nothing is going to change in the volunteers’ life other than this law gives the chief the authority to make changes without having to go to the membership. That is the bottom line. It’s like that in every organization. It’s like that in the police departments, it’s like that in every fire district.”

He did not address Thompson’s concerns about training times for new volunteers, but said that the village has enlisted a battery of new personnel and now has 21 paid EMTs and paramedics on staff, a mixture of full-time and part-time — totaling 61 ambulance personnel, including all the volunteers.

“So we’re getting back on track,” he said.