Boothbay Harbor residents will have a tough choice during town meeting on May 2: should the town's contribution to the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service (BRAS) be $168,487, $184,800.96, or a smaller amount?

The budget committee and selectmen have been working hard over the last several months putting together the budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. Many items have been discussed, presentations have been made by various groups, and in all but one case, both the committee and selectmen have agreed.

That one case is with the BRAS. On February 24, BRAS Board President Rob Ham and Operations Manager Scott Lash came to the town asking for $196,010, a 16 percent increase over last year.

Both the budget committee and selectmen had concerns over the budget and the numbers presented as there were math errors and, they felt, the fundraising goal of the service should be higher than it was.

“I do believe you have some funders that are very interested in you that would be willing to step forward,” budget committee member Mary Neal said.

The new request brought to the board by Lash, Ham and vice chairman of the board Steve Lewis had dropped to $184,800.96, a little over $11,000 down. Two changes made were the reduction of the reserve by $10,000 and elimination of the stipend for the board chairman and vice chairman, which equaled $7,000. The reason the request for Boothbay Harbor dropped $11,000 and not $17,000 is because of the funding model approved by the three towns, Boothbay Harbor, Boothbay and Southport.

This model is based on population vs. call volume from each town. Boothbay Harbor has 39 percent of the population, but nearly 60 percent of the call volume. The drop in the request from Boothbay Harbor also created a drop of $1,492.47 in Boothbay's budget and $5,225.73 in Southport's.

“I would rather fund you short, so that you have some pressure and when you go to your benefactors you can say “You know, we're down $10,000 cause those cheapskates in Boothbay Harbor didn't fund us and we really need your help and participation,” vice chairman Bill Hamblen said.

“There have to be some deliverables or expectations if we do approve your budget amount ... such as your budget amount being flat moving forward ... we would really have to see really concrete progress. I don't think towns can keep absorbing 15 and 16 thousand increases,” selectman Wendy Wolf said.

“Demographics are changing, the way we deliver education, the way we deliver healthcare service is changing at some point we need to bite the bullet and say we either need to accept a different level of service or we just need to expect the service is going to be delivered in a different way. It may not be as fast as it used to be,” select board Chairman Denise Griffin said.

“if the service has to change, then those people that it really matters to will step to the plate to do more of the funding,” Neal said. “That needs to be the message that the community gets.”

After more discussion, the selectmen voted unanimously to approve (contingent on town meeting vote) the request of $184,800.96. The budget committee instead recommended three to one (Mohammed Osman against) to fund the same amount as last year, $168,487.

Since the groups disagreed on the amount to recommend, the decision will be made by voters at town meeting on May 2. There will be two recommendations, and the townspeople can vote to approve as much as the $184,800.96 suggested by the selectmen, or any lower amount they choose to (including an amount lower than the budget committee's recommendation of $168,487.

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