Margaret Houghton, a paramedic with the Mount Desert Fire Department, will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Emergency Medical Services Bureau of the Maine Department of Public Safety.
It was not a lack of financial support from the town and its residents that caused the ambulance service to cease operations; it was the growing shortage of volunteers.
Katelyn Damon, public safety coordinator for the town of Cranberry Isles and service chief for the islands’ rescue service, said the chest compression device was a very welcome gift.
Fire Chief Mike Bender is looking to fill five new firefighter/EMT positions in the next few months because the Northeast Harbor Ambulance Service is experiencing an increasingly serious shortage of EMTs.
Turnout light for fire/EMS forum
MOUNT DESERT Fewer than a dozen people who are neither town officials nor associated with the Northeast Harbor Ambulance service attended Tuesday’s virtual forum on the idea of spending up to $357,500 for engineering and design work for the proposed expansion of the fire station in Northeast Harbor to accommodate fire and EMS personnel and equipment.
Citizens will be asked to authorize that expenditure at the annual Town Meeting on Tuesday, May 4.
Most of those who attended the forum, held via Zoom, didn’t comment or ask questions. Mount Desert resident John Adams was the only one who expressed skepticism about the wisdom of the proposed expansion. He asked why the town couldn’t, instead, rent a house or condominium near the fire station as living quarters for fire and EMS personnel.