Officials planning merger of New Bedford Fire, EMS

[CBEMT]

NEW BEDFORD — Following the lead of several SouthCoast communities, the city wants to merge the Fire and Emergency Medical Services departments by July 1 — but public safety officials don't yet know how it will be done.

"We haven't even started to work on that," Fire Chief Paul Leger said. "We're still trying to work on the Fire Department budget for the next fiscal year. We haven't looked at the EMS issue."

Meanwhile, James M. Trout, the city's EMS director, said the merger is still "in its infancy."

"We are right at the beginning of discussing the pertinent issues of how the hierarchies of the two departments are going to work in a cooperative environment," Trout said.

Combining fire and EMS was among several steps Mayor Scott W. Lang said were needed to account for an $8.2 million cut in local aid for fiscal 2010. The mayor has also called for salary cuts, seven unpaid holidays, a hiring freeze, a biweekly payroll and regionalizing basic services such as 911 dispatch.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.d.../NEWS/903230315

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This sucks. I had been seriously considering them as a job option after I got my medic. Now they've taken one of the very few professional non-fire EMS systems in Massachusetts and butchered it. When Menino gets voted out as Mayor of Boston, BEMS will go too. He's been the biggest factor standing in the way of Boston Fire ruining that show since he took office.

I fucking hate New England.

Edited March 24, 2009 by CBEMT