My name is Dennis Simmons. I am the Rockport division commander for North East Mobile Health. I have lived in the area my whole life and have been in emergency medical services since 2000, starting as a volunteer driver for my home town service.

First and foremost, let me say that I and everyone here at North East Mobile Health have nothing but the utmost respect for the great work that the folks at Camden First Aid do. They are excellent providers and care about the communities that they serve. However, this issue is not about them.

Julia Libby is correct in many of her arguments about the obstacles EMS faces. EMS has been given away for free for far too long. Who knew some 30 years ago that EMS would progress into the level that we have reached today? However, it has not been without growing pains. We struggle as a group to be recognized as the professionals that our counterparts in the police and fire services have achieved. This keeps funding low and results in wages and benefits that make it difficult to attract and keep competent providers.

Samantha Clark, in her letter to Penobscot Bay Pilot, points out correctly that national/state standards have created a level playing field in terms of treatment. But CFAA does not have an exclusive on exceptional care. All of North East's providers offer an exceptional level of care and comfort. We routinely provide many of the "extras" that she describes — and then some — for some 40,000 patients per year. And we do so because we love what we do.

North East is not a multi-national corporation with high priced certified public accountants and lawyers finding ways to send money overseas to avoid taxes. We are a Maine company, hiring Maine people, paying Maine income taxes and paying local property and excise taxes in the towns in which we own property. In the towns we lease property, we enable the landlord to be able to pay his taxes. Remember, taxes help pay for the services we all expect of government at all levels. Nonprofits do not pay taxes. North East provides an excellent wage and benefits package, putting more dollars back into our local economy. All of our current employees live locally — most, like myself, having lived here their entire lives. Any increase in our Rockport Division office will result in local jobs that need to be filled. Jobs available to local providers.

Funding for EMS is much like any other business. Costs, expenses and incomes change over time. As Julia correctly points out, it is expensive to train and keep employees and purchase and maintain equipment and supplies. Proper management and oversight help to mitigate these expenses. Budgets will depend on local demand for services, and staffing and budgeting will reflect those demands. Maintaining mutual aid agreements is important to any service, regardless of size, as at any time our resources may be tapped out, such as during an accident with multiple patients. However, in the event of staffing shortages in the Rockport area, North East has the ability to shift some of its other resources to bridge the gap, without compromising coverage in other areas.

It has been mentioned that many for-profit companies enter into 911 contracts cheaply to get a contract, only to come back in a year or two with huge increases in subsidies. In the case of North East this is simply not true. In fact, in the other towns that we contract with for 911 service, we started with small subsidies. We found we could offer the service without tax subsidies, period. Zero tax subsidies.

North East is willing to partner with any local agency that desires to build an efficient, cost effective, first rate EMS service that would be a model for the rest of the state and beyond. We are willing to forge partnerships that may result in efficiencies in billing, purchasing, training and maintenance, which helps lower the cost for providing EMS services to the communities. We made multiple offers to partner with CFAA on various projects, all of which were rejected without further discussion.