The city of Old Town is suing neighboring Milford, claiming the town owes it more than $40,000 in fees for ambulance services it provided last year.
The suit, which was filed in Penobscot Superior Court last week, represents the escalation of a conflict over ambulance services between the two neighbors that has been brewing for more than a year.
Milford last year decided to stop relying on Old Town’s ambulance service and instead acquire and staff an ambulance of its own, citing an increase in calls that had left Old Town’s ambulance crews stretched thin and sometimes unable to respond to calls in Milford.
Old Town earlier this year raised costs on the remaining half dozen communities its ambulances serve, and said it would have to scale back service to Glenburn and Hudson. The city’s public safety chief also suggested that the communities discuss forming a regional ambulance service.
The suit alleges that the town of Milford has failed to pay Old Town $41,369.37 for ambulance services Old Town provided to the town in 2021. The city is suing Milford to recover those costs and for breaching its contract.
For years, Old Town has provided ambulance services to Milford and other towns in the area without their own service.
But Milford Fire Chief Josh Mailman estimated the town could save $40,000 to $50,000 a year by running its own ambulance.
Milford’s new ambulance arrangement took effect at the start of this year, on Jan. 1. Mailman sent Old Town an email notifying the city about the change in October 2021, effectively ending the two communities’ decades-long ambulance services agreement.
Mailman described that arrangement between Old Town and Milford as a “verbal agreement” in multiple emails and letters, which the BDN obtained through a public records request.
In its lawsuit against Milford, Old Town said there was a “contractual agreement” in place that Milford breached by not paying for services provided in 2021.
On Jan. 27, more than three weeks after Milford’s new ambulance had started serving the town, Old Town Public Safety Director Scott Wilcox sent a letter to Milford stating the town still owed Old Town $41,369.37 — the amount Old Town is seeking to recover through the lawsuit — for ambulance services it provided the town between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2021.
Mailman responded in an email on Feb. 3, saying Milford had already paid for ambulance services for that period, because the town traditionally paid Old Town in December for the following calendar year of service.
“Therefore, the City of Old Town will not receive any funds from the Town of Milford, as we have already paid for the 2021 calendar year,” Milford said in the email.
Billing records from Old Town, however, show that it billed Milford each November between 2018 and 2021 for the corresponding fiscal year’s ambulance services.
Milford has not yet filed a response to the complaint. Mailman declined comment Tuesday, saying the town had yet not been served with the suit.
As a result of the feud between the two communities, Milford and Old Town — located just across a bridge from each other — have no agreements in place to supplement each other’s ambulance service, particularly around transporting patients who need more intensive care to the hospital.
Milford is only licensed to transport patients for basic life support calls, so when calls needing more advanced care come in the town has to turn to a partner to transport a patient to the hospital.
The town now has an arrangement with Orono to handle those sorts of calls, Mailman has said.