Fire Chief Mike Bender’s draft budget for next fiscal year of just over $1.9 million is about $1.2 million more than the current year’s budget, an increase of 171 percent.
That is due in part to the proposed creation of eight new firefighter/EMT positions necessitated by the transfer of responsibility for emergency medical services (EMS) from the Northeast Harbor Ambulance Service to the town’s fire department.
Officials of the independent ambulance service, which has served Mount Desert for 84 years, say that because of a serious and growing shortage of volunteer and part-time paid EMTs, they can no longer guarantee the level of service the community needs.
Bender said he plans to hire people who are certified as firefighters and need to get their EM license or vice versa.