Ansonia Aldermen on Tuesday voted to join a Prospect-based organization for handling the city’s fire and medical emergency dispatching.
The move comes as South Central CMED, the New Haven-based organization the city and other Valley towns previously contracted with to dispatch medical calls, is cutting its services in an effort to survive.
For years, CMED New Haven dispatched both the Derby fire department and ambulance service, along with ambulances in Ansonia, Shelton and the paramedics working for Valley Emergency Medical Services.
CMED also allowed ambulances to communicate directly with doctors and nurses at hospitals while on calls.
The organization served 18 municipalities throughout greater New Haven.
Not anymore.
After officials from the larger cities served by CMED raised concerns earlier this year over how much they pay for the service and subsequently decided to leave it, South Central CMED has been in crisis.
Local emergency management officials have been meeting for weeks in an effort to figure out what to do — stay with CMED and hope that things work out or seek arrangements elsewhere.
But they say that question was made moot when CMED New Haven chose to cut its services to only “core” functions — mainly ambulance-to-hospital communications, as well as coordinating mutual aid and “mass casualty” calls.
“Their Board of Directors has decided that after Oct. 15, they will no longer dispatch what they consider to be non-core services, which would be Ansonia, Derby, Bethany, and Shelton EMS, and Bethany and Derby fire as well,” Jared Heon, the chief of Ansonia Rescue Medical Services, told Ansonia Aldermen Tuesday.
“They kicked us out,” Michael Maglione, Shelton’s director of public safety and emergency management services, said.
Heon asked the Ansonia Aldermen Tuesday to approve the city joining Northwest Connecticut Public Safety, a dispatching center in Prospect, to handle the city’s fire and medical dispatching.
“Basically, after two months of working things out, the only other viable option we have to go to another dispatch center is Northwest Public Safety,” Heon said.
The group already handles EMS and fire dispatching for the towns of Oxford and Seymour, he noted.
Click the play button on the video above to see a portion of Heon’s request.
Ansonia Fire Department Chief Joseph Kingston also endorsed the move Tuesday, saying the fire department works closely with EMS crews, and police dispatchers often have their hands full during chaotic events like fires.
“This is a much better fit for the fire department,” Kingston told Aldermen.
Sixth Ward Patrick Henri asked whether the city will have to pay more for the new service.
Ansonia currently pays CMED New Haven about $42,000 per year.
Heon said he was still hammering out all the details but added, “It’s obviously going to be an increase” — CMED cut its functions to the core because bigger cities pulled out because they were subsidizing smaller municipalities, he pointed out.
But come Oct. 15, he said, “we will have no other option,” because Northwest Connecticut Public Safety is the only other dispatch center with a radio inside Griffin Hospital, where the majority of the patients ARMS transports end up.
Ambulance personnel need that link to communicate with doctors and nurses, so some sort of move was needed, he said.
The Aldermen unanimously approved Heon’s request, which will allow Mayor David Cassetti to sign a contract with Northwest Connecticut Public Safety once all the details are worked out.
The Aldermen also authorized Cassetti to spend up to $50,000 to connect Ansonia’s equipment up to the new system.
Heon said in an email Wednesday that over the next several weeks officials will work on connecting radios, computers, phones, and backup systems to Northwest Connecticut Public Safety’s systems.
Heon said that process would take several weeks but that ARMS would be ready by Oct. 15, when CMED New Haven will stop its dispatching services.
“Though the city will be paying more for dispatch services than in the past, NWPS is a stable, state of the art and very capable dispatch center that will provide enhanced quality emergency services for both citizens and first responders,” he said.
In Shelton, which pays CMED New Haven $71,000 annually, Aldermen last month voted unanimously to leave CMED.
Maglione, the city’s director of public safety and emergency management services, said officials are evaluating their options.
“We are going someplace else,” Maglione said. “Where something else is is not known at this time.”
He said Aldermen could have a plan to transition from CMED New Haven to another organization before them at their August meeting.
He assured residents that if they have emergencies they’ll be able to get in touch with help, no matter what happens.
“If south central CMED were to go dark in an hour, we have the ability to maintain the same dispatch at our own level,” Maglione said.
In Derby, a subcommittee of the Board of Aldermen met in executive session Tuesday with Derby Fire Chief Thomas Lenart, Jr. for an update on the dispatching issue.
The subcommittee didn’t discuss anything in public, but Derby fire and ambulance officials have previously said they’re talking about going to Northwest Public Safety as well.
The full Derby Board of Aldermen could take up the issue at a meeting scheduled for later this month.
