Camden Fire Department and the privately-owned North East Mobile Health Services will team up to provide ambulance service for residents in Camden, Hope and Lincolnville, if the three respective Select Boards agree to place the plan before voters at their individual June Town Meetings, and if voters approve.

The public-private model is not drastically different from what the three towns currently have in place. When 911 is called, a North East ambulance is dispatched with a medical crew. That will not change, but instead of housing all North East ambulances at the existing company’s headquarters on Route 1 in Rockport, one ambulance will be permanently stationed in the Camden Fire Station.

And, that ambulance’s two-person crew will consist of one North East employee and one Camden Fire Department firefighter/EMT/paramedic.

“This will reduce labor costs for the partnering communities,” said Lincolnville Town Administrator David Kinney, describing the arrangement to the Lincolnville Select Board at a March 10 meeting. “It will also lessen the response time because an ambulance is that much closer.”

The collaboration is intended to reduce the overall cost of ambulance service to the three towns from the initial projected increase after Rockport decided to establish its own municipal EMS service.

“Rockport provided a notice to North East and said they are going to be out,” said Kinney, in a March 12 conversation. “Then, when Rockport obtained their transport license, the writing was on the wall for the rest of us — What are we going to do? The expectation is that if you call 911 an ambulance is going to show up."

Lincolnville’s Select Board accepted the model March 10, at a regularly scheduled meeting when that town’s budget was under discussion. Camden’s Budget Committee endorsed the idea at its March 6 meeting.

Hope’s Select Board and Budget Committee will talk about it when their joint budget meetings will begin in April, and the Camden Select Board will likewise vet the plan when it considers Camden’s proposed budget at an upcoming meeting.

Why?

Until this year, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport had retained the same emergency medical service, first with the nonprofit Camden First Aid, and then with North East Mobile Health Services. But there was growing dissatisfaction with the level of the NEMHS service. Four years ago, the fire chiefs in Camden, Rockland and Rockport were actively discussing the creation of a regional EMS service. That, however, failed to gain traction.

Rockport proceeded with establishing its own EMS entity, and Camden likewise invested in training its firefighters to be EMTS and paramedics, with the goal of adding ambulance transport capabilities. 

At the same time, and in response to the nationwide trend of diminishing volunteer firefighter ranks, both towns began hiring full-time firefighters/EMS to respond to emergencies.

Last year, Rockport voters approved establishing its own staffed EMS service, and the Rockport Select Board approved at its recent March 10 meeting the purchase of a new $698,000 ambulance for that town.  

Rockport is due to completely sever its ties with North East in April, and the town’s new West Rockport Fire Station is now staffed with firefighter/EMT/paramedics.

But when Rockport decided to create its own municipal EMS service, Camden, Hope and Lincolnville knew they were in for an increase in EMS costs, given the need to spread them across three towns, not four.

Camden, Hope and Lincolnville had submitted letters to the Maine Emergency Medical Services System (Maine EMS) last November when Rockport had applied for a state license to run its own ground ambulance service. The three towns noted that the license would take a fiscal toll on their own citizens, increasing EMS costs by 78 percent.

Hope said with the absence of Rockport in the traditional regional agreement, its cost of remaining with North East would translate to a 56 percent increase, or $92,400, over what it pays now.

Lincolnville cited a cost increase of $125,000.

Camden projected its EMS line item would increase from $363,677 in 2025 to $648,598 in 2026.

The plan

As Rockport proceeded on its trajectory, Lincolnville Town Administrator Kinney, Hope Town Administrator Samantha Mank and Camden Town Manager Audra Caler were meeting, joined by North East's Petrie. He was the one who suggested stationing a North East ambulance at Camden Fire Department. The idea was based on Brewer’s model, which was initiated when he was in Bangor as chief operations officer for the privately-owned Capital Ambulance Services.

“Brewer Fire Department came to us,” he said. “We put an ambulance in Brewer and had a paramedic there, and Brewer Fire Dept. had personnel there.”

That public-private arrangement still exists in Brewer, although the city’s partner is now with Northern Light Medical Transport.

“This is the best possible solution for patients, taxpayers and institutions across the board,” said Petrie, in a March 12 conversation. “We need to continually look at a collaboration, and regionalization has to be the way it is down the road.”

He added: “This is bigger than North East and bigger than Camden. This is what it needs to be in the future. It needs to be about collaboration.”

In parallel to Rockport’s investment in EMS, Camden has continued to expand its own EMT, advanced EMT and paramedic licensing for firefighters, with the intention of again basing ambulances in downtown Camden, as it did since the 1930s.

But instead of investing in a municipally-owned ambulance, as originally planned, Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley and Petrie are now working on the details of stationing the North East ambulance in downtown Camden at the fire station.

Petrie recently produced new figures for the three towns, based on the Camden-North East collaboration. They were placed before the March 6 meeting of the Camden Budget Committee, where Camden Fire Chief presented his 2025-2026 fire and EMS account request.

Farley’s department budget includes funding for two additional firefighter/EMT personnel, upgrading and expanding the fire station to accommodate staff on 24/7 shifts, and replacing the town’s 30-year-old Engine 5.

“Camden Fire Dept. is currently staffed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., requiring after-hours staff and volunteers to respond from their homes and businesses, slowing the arrival time at an emergency when minutes matter most,” Farley wrote, in his presentation. “Two additional firefighters/EMTs allows the fire department to transition to 24-hour staffing.”

To Farley, the plan to house a North East ambulance in one of the fire station’s bays meets the department’s goals.

“For this next phase, Camden will not need to purchase its own ambulance,” he told the Budget Committee. “This will become a primary response ambulance for the towns of Camden, Hope and Lincolnville.”

It will, he said, improve the response time to the residents across the three towns, and keep the three-town system intact.

Lincolnville Administrator David Kinney agrees with that, and advocates for fiscal prudence.

'All of our services are supposed be effective and efficient'

Currently, Lincolnville is paying $160,000 for EMS services. With the revised model of three towns, Lincolnville will pay $198,000.

That $30,000 increase was accepted by the Lincolnville Select Board at its March 10 meeting.

“There may still be some additional opportunities for cost-savings that we are still trying to work out with North East,” Kinney to the Select Board.

Petrie confirmed in March 12 that the numbers were preliminary, and there is: “always room for adjustment. It is always easier to go down.”

Like Lincolnville, Hope Town Administrator Samantha Mank is receptive to the three-town model.

“When all of this first started, and Rockport gave the notice that they were going to be leaving the contract, and we were trying to figure out costs minus Rockport, the costs were quite a bit higher,” she said. “I am glad it is not going to be higher.”

Hope’s budget proposal for EMS is $146,000, up from the current $118,000.

Hope’s Select Board and Budget Committee will consider that number at upcoming April meetings, and likewise, the Camden Select Board will consider Camden’s EMS line item, which increases from $180,628 to $365,000.

Operations and logistics

If approved by voters, the North East ambulance will reside at the station, and the NEMHS staff person on duty will join the Camden firefighters on duty.

Petrie said North East will have one ambulance in Camden, staffed 24 hours a day. North East will have another ambulance staffed for 16 hours a day in Rockport, seven days a week, and a third ambulance, also in Rockport, staffed 12 hours a day, five days a week. North East also maintains a “fly car” staffed with a paramedic, called as needed.

North East has a mutual aid agreement with Rockland, Rockport, Thomaston and Union, “because you need them in place if you are not available,” he said.

The billing system for ambulance calls will be retained by North East, and while a Camden EMT/paramedic will staff the ambulance, North East will reimburse the town for that Camden personnel presence.

“It is the operationally efficient and fiscally responsible solution,” said Petrie.

A business contract will establish the financial procedure and the memorandum of understanding will guide the operations.

“Everybody seems optimistic that it can work,” said Kinney. “All of our services are supposed be effective and efficient.”

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657