Ledyard — A week after the Town Council voted to explore its ambulance service provider options, members of the Ledyard Volunteer Emergency Squad reaffirmed their desire to keep serving the town at an emotional meeting Wednesday night.

During their meeting Wednesday, volunteers voted to not disband the organization. The decision means that the Ledyard Volunteer Emergency Squad, also known as LVES or Ledyard Ambulance, plans to respond to the town's request for proposals — and attempt to prove it can reduce its missed-call rate and response times prior to the June 30 expiration of its contract with the town.

Although not technically a town agency, LVES has been responsible for the town’s ambulance services since 1972, with its current contract being in place since the mid-1990s.

“Everybody I think was on a positive note as far as wanting to go forward and improve on what we need to improve on,” said Rick Mumenthaler, who assumed the role of LVES director about month ago, when former leadership resigned. "I think this was just a kickstart for what we needed.”

"I just want the residents to know we are going to do our best and get out there,” he added.

Mayor Fred Allyn III said previously that LVES is not prohibited from applying to be the town's ambulance company going forward. However, it would need to show improvement and submit a proposal just like any other company. He added he also anticipates American Ambulance and American Medical Response to respond to the request for proposals.

Much like the Town Council meeting last week, the meeting Wednesday was emotional but volunteer members present almost universally expressed their desire to improve the group's response times and continue its service as the town's ambulance company.

Last week Town Council instructed the mayor to not renew the town’s contract with LVES and instead put out a request for proposals for ambulance services that would begin at the start of the new fiscal year, July 1. The council’s decision, which was approved by a 7-1 vote, came amid councilors' and the mayor’s growing concerns about LVES's missed calls and slow response times.

At the time, Allyn called attention to data that showed in 85 calls that came in over the past several months, 40 percent of the time the ambulance organization's response time exceeded 18 minutes. He also expressed concern about occasions when LVES was unable to respond to calls at all, particularly on weekends. One weekend, LVES actually missed all five calls that came in.

Although Allyn also noted that the data showed that LVES's paid staff members, who work during the weekdays, respond far more quickly, typically in under 10 minutes.

When an ambulance crew is unable to respond to an emergency dispatch, it is usually because it does not have enough personnel on hand. In those cases, a dispatcher then requests assistance from a mutual-aid ambulance in a neighboring community. For Ledyard, mutual aid calls go out to Groton, Preston, Mystic and the Mashantuckets. 

However, long response times and missed calls were not town officials' only concerns. Some officials said that frequent changes in leadership and divisions within the organization were worrisome, as well.

And even with renewed focus, there were still some areas of disagreement among members. For example, some of the officers are trying to persuade volunteers to stay in the emergency services building while working their shifts, rather than responding from home.

Additionally, one volunteer was voted out of the group in a divided vote Wednesday evening.

The ultimate takeaway from the meeting among members, though, was clear: the clock is ticking and things need to get better fast.

“We have to improve when we leave here tonight,” member Alan Bardfield said.

c.clark@theday.com