DALTON, Mass. — The Board of Water Commissioners will consider participating in a Central Berkshire and the Hill Towns Emergency Medical Services regionalization study during a future meeting.

 

During last week's meeting, resident Thomas Irwin presented the board with an opportunity to participate in an EMS regionalization study, which would be fully funded by the state and would not commit the district to any future changes, he said. 

 

The study would provide information and be a "very helpful guide" to the future of EMS services. 

 

"There's a push statewide to support regionalization of EMS services because it's not financially viable to have only, you know, have separate full-blown EMS services in each town," Irwin said. 

 

The study would include the bordering towns of Savoy, Windsor, Dalton, Hinsdale and Peru, and the Hampshire County town of Middlefield, Irwin said. 

 

The state recognizes the need to understand what needs to be changed and how to change the EMS service system, so it is allocating money for regionalization studies, he said. 

 

If the board approves participating in the study, UMass Boston’s Collins Center would apply for the state grant, and if awarded, the center would coordinate the study, he said in a follow-up. 

 

The study would involve gathering the historical EMS call data from the last one to the years for the participating towns, Irwin said. 

 

Before making a decision board members wanted to wait to see the letters of interest from the bordering towns. Irwin said that is not a problem and will email them to the board. 

 

Irwin has collected letters of interest from Savoy, Hinsdale, Peru, and Middlefield. He is waiting to hear back from the Windsor Fire Department regarding its level of interest and any concerns about the study. 

 

Both South County and North County have a regionalization study, Irwin said. There has been a lot of conversation around ways to improve EMS service due to the high cost and wait times in rural areas. 

 

According to Middlefield's letter of interest, the wait time for EMS services is approximately 45 minutes. 

 

The town of Peru wrote that it currently relies on other communities for services because it does not have an ambulance. 

 

"As a small rural community, we see regionalization as potentially an important tool in assuring the best possible emergency services for the residents of Peru without causing our taxes to increase," the Peru Select Board wrote. 

 

According to the 2024 town census, Savory has a volunteer basic life-support level EMS service "who does a remarkable job of being the first responder to medical emergencies within our town," the Savoy Select Board wrote. 

 

So far in 2024 the department has responded to 25 emergencies with an average response time of six minutes to the scene. 

 

"Since we do not have an ambulance, he stabilizes the individual with the medical issue and coordinates care with the ambulance when it arrives," Savoy’s board said. 

 

This is similar to what Dalton had to do before incorporating Advanced Life Support into its services. 

 

"The usual response times of the North County ambulance most often coming from Adams is approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Dalton, which is 4 minutes farther away than the Adams ambulance, is a potential alternate," Savoy’s Board said. 

 

Hinsdale also only has a basic life support system service in town.