Board pledges $76k from ARPA to ambulance station
Project proposed alongside new Copley offices
July 20, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti After hearing an update from leaders of Waterbury Ambulance Service on fundraising to build a new ambulance station, the Waterbury Select Board has pledged to allocate $76,000 to the project from federal funds coming to the town.
The promise hinges on voters approving the move and participation of neighboring towns of Duxbury and Moretown to chip in similarly based on the service they receive from Waterbury Ambulance. The decision was made at the board’s meeting on Monday.
An architect's rendering of the proposed new station for Waterbury Ambulance Service. Image by EHDanson Associates
The request from the ambulance service came as a permit application has just been filed for the 6,500-square-foot project planned for a five-acre site along Vermont Route 100.
The site is on part of 73 acres owned by Charles Sayah which will need to be subdivided for the project. Most of the former Sayah farm is on the west side of Vermont Route 100 just south of Waterbury Veterinary Hospital and the commercial complex where the Cabot Cheese Annex and other retail stores are located. Sayah’s property includes 16 acres on the east side of Rt. 100 also.
According to Waterbury Planning and Zoning Director Steve Lotspeich, Copley Health Systems and Waterbury Ambulance Service filed applications last week to subdivide the property and for site plan review by the Waterbury Development Review Board. The proposal has not yet been scheduled for a DRB agenda, Lotspeich said.
According to the application, in addition to the site for the new ambulance station, a separate nearly 19-acre lot would be created for a one-story medical office building of about 9,100 square feet, Lotspeich said.
Early discussions have indicated that Copley’s Mansfield Orthopaedics offices now located on Main Street in Waterbury would likely relocate to the new facility, according to town officials.
Copley Hospital Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Human Resources Wayne Stockbridge is listed as a project contact. In May he replied to an inquiry from Waterbury Roundabout regarding the project saying, “We are in the initial stages of the development of a medical office clinic on a property that we are purchasing in Waterbury. We are also working with [Waterbury Ambulance Service Inc.] on purchasing a parcel of the land to build a new ambulance building.”
Ambulance Service Administrator Maggie Burke told the select board that the land purchase is contingent on project permitting. Stockbridge acknowledged that the combined projects have multiple steps ahead. “There are many stages that need to be accomplished,” he said. “The potential for this project and partnership with WASI is very exciting as it will enhance access to healthcare services for all.”
The project also will need state permits including Act 250 land-use review, officials said.
Project planning interrupted by COVID-19
Waterbury Ambulance Service Executive Director Mark Podgwaite along with Burke addressed the select board on Monday to discuss the project and fundraising to date.
Since 1983, the ambulance service has operated out of a two-bay, 2,400-square-foot station located adjacent to the town highway department facilities on Guptil Road. Members of the nonprofit EMS agency began searching for a location to build a new station several years ago and plans were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since spring 2020, Waterbury Ambulance responded as a lead agency involved in running COVID-19 testing sites, pop-up clinics, and home testing for the elderly and homebound. It then added vaccination clinics which are still ongoing.
Burke said ambulance staff have administered more than 150,000 COVID-19 tests and more than 40,000 vaccines.
For their efforts, the agency was named the top ambulance service in Vermont for 2020 by the state. Podgwaite also received a lifetime achievement award from the state for 2021.
Making progress on a $1 million campaign
This spring, ambulance service leaders returned to the station project announcing a major fundraising campaign. They have designs for a new four-bay building that will fit a new ambulance to be delivered in 2023, room for training, supplies, and for overnight staff to rest when on duty.
With $1.5 million in hand from savings and income earned through the pandemic, they set their goal to raise another $1 million for the station project.
So far, individual donations, pledges and grants have raised about two-thirds of that amount, Burke said, with approximately $270,000 left to go. In an interview on WDEV radio last month, Burke said that $500,000 of that has come in a pledge from Karen Steele. She and her late husband Ed Steele were longtime community members and benefactors.
Given that the agency serves Waterbury, Duxbury and part of Moretown, Podgwaite said Waterbury Ambulance plans to ask each municipality to contribute to the project using funds coming to the town governments from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
Tapping the federal windfall
In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act established the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund that directs $350 billion to state and local governments across the nation for the response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, of Vermont’s $1.25 billion share, over $200 million was allocated to municipalities. That translates to about $300 per Vermonter.
The league has set up the ARPA Assistance and Coordination Program to assist Vermont’s town, city and village governments with the process of allocating their funds and navigating the rules associated with it.
Waterbury’s allocation is $1.54 million, of which only a portion has been designated so far. Voters in March approved allocating $100,000 to the nonprofit Ice Center to shore up its finances after impacts from the pandemic. The select board has also agreed to contribute $50,000 to CVFiber’s efforts to expand internet broadband service in the community. Another $95,000 was included in this year’s municipal budget to make up for lost revenue during the pandemic.
With the ambulance pledge, that would leave approximately $1.2 million unallocated. Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk has said funds need to be designated by 2024 and spent by 2026. The board discussed putting the ambulance service request to voters on Town Meeting Day next March.
The select board has had on its future agenda list a discussion of how to spend the remaining ARPA funds, but it has not scheduled it yet. Board members Monday night expressed unanimous strong support for the ambulance station request, but also said they do not want to decide any additional uses for the remaining funds until a broader public conversation happens.
Board member Alyssa Johnson said she had “zero qualms” with the ambulance request. “They’re a private, nonprofit providing about as valuable a service to the community as we can get,” she said. “But I do think we’re just chipping away at this really important pot of funding without a broader conversation about what the strategic process is, and that does trouble me.”
Other board members concurred and Vice Chair Dani Kehlmann suggested the board look to schedule a special meeting in upcoming weeks solely to discuss ARPA funds rather than trying to fit the discussion into a regular board meeting.
The board voted 4-0 to pledge $76,000 to the ambulance project. Board Chair Mike Bard was absent.
Podgwaite said the ambulance service would look to the communities for a total of $100,000 divided based on its service in each town. Waterbury accounts for 76% of Waterbury Ambulance work, he said, leading to the $76,000 request. Duxbury accounts for another 20%, and the remaining 4% is Moretown, he said, noting that they have not yet approached select boards in the other towns.
According to a Vermont League of Cities and Towns ARPA database, Duxbury’s ARPA allocation is just over $390,000; Moretown is receiving almost $498,000.