Med-Care awards bid for new facility

Citizens voice concerns about future neighbor

by Bruce Farrin

PERU -- Eight people in the Highland Terrace area of Mexico voiced their concerns to the Med-Care Board of Directors Wednesday about having an ambulance facility in their neighborhood.

Spokesman for the group was Gary DeRoehn, who announced they were there to ask Med-Care to reconsider the new location.

Reading from a prepared statement, he talked about the top issue being the noise from the sirens.

"I understand that on average you have 12 calls per day and out of those are probably six calls that will be under the siren. But all it takes is that one call to create a disturbance to our quiet and peaceful neighborhood."

From a personal level, DeRoehn said he is a shift worker. "My bedroom faces the location of the new building. I've been working shifts for a long time and as I get older, the harder it is to get a good night or day sleep. One call in the morning after I've gone to bed will ruin my sleep for the day. I already wear earplugs but sirens are designed to be louder than normal to make sure they are heard."

Board President Steve Brown noted, "Of the 10 or 12 calls we average in a day, many of these are routine transfers from our critical access hospital, Rumford, to the larger medical facilities, bringing patients to or from the hospital, to or from nursing homes. More than half of them are not really emergency calls."

DeRoehn also cited the light pollution the project would cause after taking down the trees that line Highland Terrace in front of the proposed new building. "This will open our houses to the light from Wal-Mart, Oxford Federal Credit Union and the new Med-Care building. These trees also provide us a sound barrier and absorb noise from traffic and patrons."

Resident Joe Richard noted there are two residences facing the facility, which now will be right in view of the lights from Med-Care and the credit union.

Director of Operations Dean Milligan said the landscaping includes planting eight- to 10-foot hardwood trees, placed between the two driveways, and the front of the building.

He added, "All the lights (for the Med-Care facility) are building mounted. There's no parking lot lights. All of them are angled to be going down to light up the approximate area of the building. There's no big spot lights on poles or anything like that."

He said a third reason is public safety as people travel faster than the 35 mile per hour speed limit. DeRoehn said ambulances pulled out onto Highland Terrace into this kind of traffic would be putting Med-Care employees at risk. "Also, there are no sidewalks on this state road but locals like to walk it for exercise and to do business at Wal-Mart and VIP."

DeRoehn stated the fourth reason is that the value of the houses directly affected will drop considerably. "I asked a realtor how easy it would be to sell a house directly in front of an ambulance service. He laughted and said 'good luck.' With the economy the way it is and so many houses on the market, anyone would be foolish to buy one."

Several Rumford board representatives also responded.

"Valid point guys," said Brad Adley. "But as a Rumford representative, the farther you move it away from Rumford, the more uncomfortable we would get."

Eric Giroux added, "We've already moved two miles down the road, farther away from our town."

Duane Phelps said "These people running those ambulances are going to be well aware of the situation in your residential area."

DeRoehn also asked the board to revisit the parcel owned by Randy Richards, located just east of Region 9.

"I don't think you went beyond, when you evaluated all these places, what the negative side, which is what you have here, the opposition. You wouldn't have any on Randy Richards' property," he said.

Mexico representative Reggie Arsenault, who has served on the building committee since the beginning, noted, "This has been a five-year project that we've worked on. We looked at 29 properties in five years. This wasn't something that we jumped into without looking. We put some serious thought into this."

"No place is ever going to be perfect," he said, adding that they looked at the Randy Richards' property back along which "we didn't think was going to be suitable."

Peru representative Jim Pulsifer noted that the Richards' property site had some terrain issues -- a gully, steep slopes and ledge.

Brown said, "We looked at places up further Route 17, even Dixfield, or off from Route 108. From a response time situation, they just weren't feasible or suitable."

Resident Andy Dupuis asked if they considered going into the Rumford Industrial Park.

Brown said they did but the response time would be hampered by going through narrow Smithcrossing, as well as the energy plant near that site if there was ever a leak or environmental issue.

Pulsifer noted that at this point in time, if they were to try move to develop another site, "we would be a year to a year and a half before we would be able to get to another facility. The current facility we've been by with just because we're working on something and we've finally got something in place."

Brown said it's not that they've just outgrown their present space. There are safety concerns because the building is not up to code.

Dupuis asked how long ago it was when they decided on this piece of property.

Board President Steve Brown responded it was back in June "when we started having trouble with the NewPage land because of the bankruptcy. We had looked at this land previously."

Pulsifer added that they were working on this in multiple approaches. "We had to find land. We had to find financing and we had to get a contract out so that we could get it built."

"If you knew four months ago, why did we get notified only about a month ago?" asked Dupuis. "No one knew about this. It was kept under wraps. We never knew anything until we got a certified letter."

Brown said they had to work out the agreement with the credit union, as well as the bank for the financing and the architects and engineers. "There was also quite a bit of work on the stipulation that they (credit union) didn't want us to use the entry way down to Route 2 because it would confuse their customers."

DeRoehn said, "It would have been nice if they would have considered us to see what the cons are. I can't imagine none of you would have thought there was going to some issues with noise, lights and sirens with neighbors. We feel slighted on that."

Brown said, "That was a consideration with any of the sites we were considering. It's very hard to get out of the core response area and not have some impact on the people around there."

Milligan said "they were notified within a week of us signing the purchase and sales agreement and abutters were notified. They actually got their letters before an article was even contemplated to be put in the paper."

Med-Care also had had a walk through on the property with three of eight people, who will be neighbors of the facility.

Brown noted that three of them were also present at the Mexico Planning Board, which gave their approval for the project.

Richard said, "We walk by, almost everyday, and right where the lights are at Wal-Mart, these people coming from Dixfield towards Wal-Mart, they see that light (on) green and they're stepping on it. They come flying through there, doing 50, 60 miles an hour. If they're (Med-Care) going to pull out of Highland Terrace; I think it's a pretty dangerous spot to have that."

Regarding the issue of speeding traffic in that 35 mile per hour zone, Arsenault said he believes motorists will slow down, knowing that emergency vehicles are coming into that area.

"I truly believe Med-Care, we are going to be beautiful neighbors. We are not going to be bullies. We're going to be sensitive to your needs," he said.

Pulsifer said, "I understand your concerns, but I think if you give it a chance, you'll find it's a lot better solution than some other commercial establishment going in that location."

Brown said "From our position, where it's a regional service, and we're providing service to 11 towns, this general location is really kind of essential to us to have a decent response time to the majority of our population, but yet be able to get up to Andover, Hanover, Upton, up to Canton, Peru, Dixfield and Carthage."

Roxbury representative Gordon Touchette, who was in firefighting for 50 years, said, "What comes to my mind, are they going to get there in time? Minutes are so important. I wouldn't want to do anything to slow them emergency vehicles down because they might be coming after me. We've got to work around, without worrying about the lights or the sirens. They're emergency vehicles. They're going out because somebody's in trouble. They need help. It's up to us to help them get there safely and as quick as possible."

DeRoehn asked Milligan for his business card, and got several.

Milligan said that when they move into the facility, they will establish a policy "about entering Highland Terrace with the emergency siren on when there's no traffic will not be allowed. And like I told you (DeRoehn) in the town office, I could quarantee that somebody would be giving me a call within the first few months because we're going to have to police it."

"That's why we've got your business cards," chuckled DeRoehn. "I will see you at two in the morning Dean."

Milligan said, "I understand that a lot of people don't want to have an ambulance station in their back yard, let alone their front yard. But I do believe that we will end up being an asset. I believe we'll be a good neighbor to you and I believe we'll be a benefit to you. We understand there's going to be some challenges. We're going to have with them collectively and hopefully, we can get to a resolution that we'll all live in harmony."

And with that, the eight residents got up to leave, with one of them noting, "I'm going to get some sleep while I can."

Photo: Picasa

Gary DeRoehn was spokesman for a group of eight Highland Terrace residents asking Med-Care to reconsider the new location in their Mexico neighborhood. (Times photo by Bruce Farrin)