Southern Berkshire County — Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad has formally requested an increase in what towns pay for its service for 2024.
The organization services Alford, Egremont, Monterey, Sheffield, Washington, and Great Barrington, where it is based. It started in 1968 as a volunteer organization and eventually transitioned in 2014 to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
For years, the organization provided its services to towns for free. As a result of multiple financial issues, however, starting last year the organization started to bill for its services. “We billed each town a certain amount of money depending on the valuation of their properties, which is how we decided on how to bill them for funds so we can continue to provide our services,” President of Southern Berkshire Ambulance Board of Directors Jim Santos told The Berkshire Edge. “At the time, we told these towns that this will be a yearly thing we will keep asking for.”
Santos explained that the organization does not operate on fiscal years as municipalities operate, from July 1 to June 30, but instead operates by calendar years.
Santos said that, in the letter requesting funds from each town, the organization is expecting a shortfall of $475,000 for 2024. Due to the predicted shortfall in the organization’s budget, each town will see an estimated 36 percent increase in funding requests across the board.
Santos provided several reasons for the large predicted shortfall. “The first and foremost reason is due to labor and benefits costs,” Santos said. “That’s probably our biggest expense in our budget, and it just keeps going up and up. There is a severe, critical shortage of EMTs and paramedics everywhere. To hire and retain people, we have to pay top dollar. We also have to keep giving them raises and increase their benefits when we can.” Santos said that the costs of health insurance for the organization’s employees continue to rise.
“The costs for medical and oxygen supplies have also gone up, along with fuel costs for our vehicles,” Santos said. “There’s also a cost for employee compensation for our employees to take the yearly educational classes. We have also faced a decreased reimbursement rate from insurance companies.”
Santos said that the amount of employees that the organization has, both full and part time, fluctuates from 25 to 28 through the course of the year.
According to ProPublica, which has a database of tax filings for nonprofit organizations, the most recent 990 tax filing by the organization was made for the year 2021. The filing lists that it had $1,976,749 in revenue, but $2,069,653 in expenses, leaving the organization with a debt of $92,904.
Meanwhile, the organization’s funding request for 2024 was reviewed by the Alford Select Board at its regular meeting on Monday, November 27. “I still don’t like the fact that they don’t have to tell us much about their budget or their expenses,” Select Board member Peter Puciloski said in reviewing the funding request. “I’m not so sure what we can do about that.”
Select Board member Peggy Rae Henden-Wilson also spoke unfavorably about the funding request. “It’s a 36 percent increase over this year’s [funding request] without us knowing anything,” Henden-Wilson said. “Are you buying snack food? Are you buying reams of paper? By no means do I [mean] to say that Southern Berkshire Ambulance is not a needed thing here in this town.”
Henden-Wilson said that the Select Board should request that representatives from the organization come before the board to formally make their funding request. “We were very adamant the last time they were here, we need more than ‘it’s going to cost more because labor and benefit costs have gone up 36 percent,’” Henden-Wilson said. “It seems quite a bit.”
“When we asked for itemization [in their budget] they told us to take a hike,” Puciloski said.
“I think it’s really important for the residents of Alford to know that,” Henden-Wilson said. “We’re following this closely, but we can’t force them to give us a breakdown [of their budget], even though they’re taking public monies. Honestly, I don’t think that any of us would accept that in our household incomes or business [operations].”
The Select Board briefly discussed the possibility of comparing the costs and response time for other ambulance services in the area and did not take any action on the organization’s funding request.
