10/23/2025
In the interest of setting the record really straight, Ms. Bourgoin is indeed correct. Towns have had to supplement their EMS Services and East Haddam is no different. East Haddam pays plenty including but not limited to $320,000 for Monday through Friday 6am to 6pm EMT staffing, $120,000 for dispatch services, a recent ambulance purchase, insurance costs, supplies, radios, and even free office space for EHAA. EHAA bills and receives all fees (revenue) for services and gives nothing to the town, even for the calls that our paid staff take. In her last two years as Selectman, Ms. Bourgoin states that the EHAA has not asked for money except what is stipulated in the “standing agreement”. Ms. Bourgoin apparently has not read the “standing agreement’. If she did, she would see that the EHAA is in breach of the agreement because they have not paid their financial obligation to the town since 2022, estimated to be almost $60,000 now past due. While on the topic of the ambulance agreement, here is the history of it. There was a problem brewing years ago with the EMS operations and that is why Mark Walter penned the first EHAA Agreement in 2010 with the EHAA leadership at that time. Emmett Lyman added the stipulation to pay a per-call per person fee to the town for our paid staff when they take calls because the EHAA was collecting all revenue. Rob Smith was working on changing the agreement with the EHAA and when I was elected, I took his draft and tweaked it further. I am not the first to take this on and I’m sure I’m not the last. The EHAA did ask for money twice, they came to the BOS & BOF and asked for $70,897.00 in 2024-2025 and $59,316.52 in 2023-2024. They received both amounts. The “thorough presentations” of their finances they shared with the town were not consistent fiscal records. The numbers and accounts that they shared were different each time. When asked for maintenance records for the town-owned ambulance, we received a handwritten record of very inadequate maintenance and one that didn’t at all match the communicated record of the ambulance being in and out of service on the ACTIVE 911 communications that town emergency services use. I have called for a forensic audit of the organization, and it was refused for months. I do not and still do not have confidence in the operational and fiscal management of the EHAA and it is for this reason and this reason alone that I have called for the East Haddam Fire Department to take over the operational management of the EHAA. If the town took over the operations side of EMS services, we would have clear budgeting, accounting, and full disclosure of how money is spent especially our taxpayers’ money. To write them a mismanagement check each year is very irresponsible of our town’s leadership.
Irene M. Haines
First Selectman
Town of East Haddam
Municipal Office Complex
1 Plains Rd, P.O. Box 385
Moodus, CT 06460
860-873-5021
[email protected]
