Tri-Town Ambulance Appoints Temporary Chief

The Chilmark Board of Selectmen voted on Tuesday night to appoint Paul “Zeke” Wilkins temporary acting chief of the Tri-Town Ambulance service. Wilkins will oversee the emergency response unit that serves West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah for 30 to 60 days, until a permanent chief is hired.  

“We need somebody now for day-to-day operations; somebody needs to be in charge," said Aquinnah Police Chief Randhi Belain, chairman of the Tri-Town Ambulance Committee, which oversees the ambulance service. “The squad needs to know that they can go to someone.” The committee voted last Thursday to recommend Wilkin’s appointment to the selectmen.

Applications for the permanent chief position are due March 11, but those involved expect the process to take several months. The former chief of the Tri-Town Ambulance, Robert Bellinger, stepped down late last year, after accepting the job in June.

Warren Doty, chair of the Chilmark selectmen, spoke highly of Wilkin’s paramedic skills, but suggested that his temporary appointment was unlikely to develop into a permanent position.

“Someone who goes through paramedic training, passes the course, is very good in the ambulance and is a good paramedic is not necessarily a good manager of the ambulance service,” said Doty.

“Our concern as Board of Selectmen, once again,” he said, “is better financial management and all that paperwork—that the bills are paid on time, and that it comes in here and the ambulance service is working well with our accountant to get everything done properly.  That is a concern that we see from inside the town of Chilmark.”

The ambulance service is currently in the midst of professionalizing its services in order to comply with a new state law that mandates round-the-clock paramedics response. In order to do so, the Tri-Town Ambulance plans to add four new jobs, which could increase its operating budget by 60 percent.

That proposed budget has raised numerous concerns in the three towns that, as of now, are expected to equally assume the increased costs.

Belain said he shared Doty’s concerns, and that the ambulance committee was focused on hiring a full-time chief who could serve as a financial and personnel manager.

“We’ve been through this process since last April, when we hired what we thought was the chief we were going to have.” he said. “I think we’ve learned from that as to what we would like to see in this new chief.”

“For the time being, we’re just going to try our best,” said Belain.

Wilkins said he doesn’t plan to implement any changes, but wanted to keep the bills paid and the squadron happy.

Earlier this month, members of the ambulance committee convened at a joint Up-Island selectmen’s session to request that a police chief assume some of the committee’s responsibilities. The selectmen chose to not make any changes until a permanent chief is in place.