At the November 25 Boothbay Harbor selectmen's meeting, Boothbay Region Ambulance Service Director Robbie Ham presented a status report.

On October 1, St. Andrews Hospital's emergency room closed. From that point on, ambulances no longer brought patients there. During October, the ambulance had 112 calls.

“That's roughly equal to what we had last year,” Ham said. “Granted, it's just one month, so we can't really make too many guesses about the busy season yet.”

Ham also spoke about the budget for the Ambulance Service, which inflated dramatically last year (from $39,138 to $181,906) due to uncertainty about St. Andrews and the increased costs of traveling all the way to Miles Memorial or Mid Coast hospitals.

“I've got a gut feeling we will need very little more money, if any at all,” Ham said. “We're not overburdened and we haven't had to spend as much as we thought so far.”

Since October, BRAS has kept two ambulance crews on duty around the clock. Of the 112 calls they have gone out on, 89 of those were the first call they had gotten at the time, while the remaining 23 required a second, third or fourth ambulance to be sent out.

While they do not bring anyone to the urgent care clinic, the ambulances do transport patients from the clinic to Miles or Mid Coast. According to Ham, they transport around four patients a week from the urgent care clinic, which is down from what it used to be.

“The bottom line is, I'm happy,” Ham said. “$190,000 versus $38,000 is a huge difference, and we may not need any more.”

“This is terrific news,” Board Chairman Bill Hamblen said. “I am very hopeful and look forward to hearing your next report. I hope the trend continues.”

Ham also said that the ambulance service would like to become more tied in with the town. The service was planning to restructure the board and draft a set of by-laws with the board of selectmen before the next budget year.

“We would like that,” Hamblen said.