Cheshire County Administrator Chris Coates said on Monday, Oct. 9 that the top two officials at Cheshire EMS are departing the county-run agency.
Chief Michael Spain retired from the department to move back to family in Illinois, while Deputy Chief Chad Butler plans to pursue a different job opportunity, Coates said in an announcement sent to the area towns that contract with Cheshire EMS.
News of the leadership changes comes less than a year after Cheshire EMS launched from a new facility in Swanzey. The county announced Spain’s hiring in August 2022.
Harrisville, Marlborough, Swanzey, Stoddard, Westmoreland, Gilsum and Richmond have all signed primary EMS contracts with the county, according to Coates. He added that Cheshire EMS also acts as a backup for Winchester, Fitzwilliam, Troy, Marlow and Alstead and sends paramedic intercepts — a call for an outside paramedic when a town does not have one or cannot send their own — to those communities when requested.
“As we move forward and reorganize the department, there will be no changes to service, and all portions of our contract with your town will be fulfilled,” the announcement states.
Butler will serve as interim chief “through this transition period,” according to the announcement. Butler notified Spain and Coates before Spain decided to retire that he had been offered a job outside the health care industry, Coates said.
The county has also contracted with Municipal Resources Inc. — a Plymouth-based municipal management consulting firm — to help with the transition to new leadership. As part of this, Don Bliss, a subject-matter expert for Municipal Resources, will assist in the overall transition while Chris Olsen will act as interim chief focused on administration.
Coates added the county had expected Spain to stay with Cheshire EMS for about two years, but that Spain’s decision to retire stemmed from wanting to move closer to his family.
As for the deputy chief position, he said there are several promising candidates within the organization and anticipated the county would hire a new one by the end of next week.
He said the county had already planned to hire Bliss to help develop a strategic plan for Cheshire EMS for the next one, three and five years.
“Both chiefs have put us in a position for real success here,” Coates said. “We started from literally nothing and built something.”
Cheshire EMS’ launch in November 2022 came about a year after the county announced plans to acquire the private Keene-based DiLuzio Ambulance Service. That deal fell through in April 2022, but the county moved forward with its own service, using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to construct its headquarters in Swanzey, purchase equipment and help subsidize the first three years of service costs for contracted towns.
After nearly 72 years in business, DiLuzio Ambulance announced May 2 that it would close the following day, citing the toll the company had taken on the health of DiLuzio family members and the impact it had on their finances.
Since then, communities affected by DiLuzio’s closure have had to choose whether to contract with the county service, Brattleboro-based Rescue Inc. or another EMS provider.
Rescue Inc., a nonprofit that began serving towns immediately after DiLuzio closed, gave these communities until June 30 to decide whether to sign a contract for longer-term service.
But after Swanzey decided to go with the less expensive Cheshire EMS in June and several other towns followed, Rescue Inc. announced it would pull out of the region by the end of that month.
The significant difference in Cheshire EMS’ proposed contract costs and other agencies’ caused tension with some local fire departments, including after Westmoreland signed a one-year contract with Cheshire EMS in February rather than renew with Keene.
Keene’s Chief Donald Farquhar said “it would have a devastating effect on our budget” if Cheshire EMS took all of the department’s contracts.
And in June, Keene’s local union chapter of the International Association of Firefighters posted a letter between IAFF officials to Facebook stating that, as of June 8, the union had declared Cheshire EMS “a rival to the IAFF.”
The city has since signed a temporary contract with Rescue Inc. to provide backup ambulance service for the Keene Fire Department through Oct. 31. Coates said discussions between the city and county continue, and the new team — Bliss, Olsen, Butler and the Cheshire EMS captains — would work with the city to reach an agreement.
“We’ll be looking at what they presented and see how we move forward,” he said. “We think we can find a way to come together and really meet the needs of the city.”
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