Conn. City Severing Ties with CMED
July 15--ANSONIA -- The city is severing its ties with New Haven-based South Central CMED, and will rely on a Prospect-based communications agency to handle its fire and medical emergency dispatch calls.
The Board of Aldermen recently took the action after hearing a recommendation from Jared Heon, Ansonia Rescue and Medical Services executive director. The aldermen voted to join Northwest Connecticut Public Safety in Prospect to do the job the city has relied on CMED to do for years.
"After more than two months of trying to work things out, the only other viable option we have is to go with Northwest Public Safety," Heon told aldermen at the board's meeting last week.
Heon said Northwest Safety currently handles dispatching of medical emergency and fire calls for the neighboring towns of Seymour and Oxford. He said the time is right for Ansonia to cut its ties with CMED, as the organization is struggling to survive.
Heon said CMED has drastically scaled back on its services. "There's a big push in New Haven to change the structure of CMED," Heon said.
Some 18 towns, including the Valley towns of Ansonia, Derby and Shelton, previously had contracted with CMED to utilize its dispatching services. According to a report in the Valley Independent Sentinel, CMED dispatched fire and ambulance service for Derby, as well as ambulances in Ansonia and Shelton and the paramedics working for Valley Emergency Medical Services, or VEMS.
CMED also enabled ambulance personnel to directly communicate with doctors and nurses on staff en route to the hospitals.
Ansonia pays CMED about $42,000 a year for its dispatching services. Heon said he didn't have a figure yet on what it will cost Ansonia to switch to Northwest Public Safety, as the details still are being worked out. The aldermen voted to spend up to $50,000 to join the new dispatch service.
Officials in Shelton, which pays CMED $71,000 a year for its services, voted last month to pull out of CMED.
Copyright 2014 - New Haven Register, Conn.
