In an unusual appeal directly to the Woodstock Selectboard, former Woodstock Ambulance Director Butch Roy asked for answers as to why he is being denied the opportunity to serve again on a regular rescue squad crew. Roy, a longtime Woodstock resident, served for several decades on the ambulance squad before becoming Ambulance Director. However he was replaced about six years ago by a paramedic from New Mexico who later went back to the Southwest. Since that time, regular local volunteer Pat Cassidy — after having gone to school to become a certified paramedic — was hired by the Town of Woodstock as Ambulance Director.
Roy appeared at the public meeting tonight to say he was pretty fed up with being told for the past three years that he could not be on a regular crew by Ambulance Director Pat Cassidy, Emergency Services Director L.D. Sutherland, Jr. and Town Manager Phil Swanson. He said, “I have been stalled and been given excuses and no one gave me reasons that were useful. “Roy said he didn’t understand why he isn’t allowed back on the service as a volunteer and was seeking a different outcome through an appeal to the Selectboard.
Town Manager Swanson pointed out to Roy that Ambulance Director Cassidy had offered to welcome him as a volunteer during the day to run and respond to ambulance calls while she is on duty. Roy said he didn’t take her up on the offer because the day schedule doesn’t work for him because he is a laborer and gets dirty and “wouldn’t want to walk into some lady’s house like that” and because, in the winter, he also works during the day on the ski patrol at Suicide Six.
Swanson also pointed out that since Roy is seeking volunteer work and is not currently an employee of the Town of Woodstock there is very little the Woodstock Selectboard can do for him. However, taken as a complaint from a town resident, Swanson told Roy it was entirely appropriate to say he didn’t like the decisions made by the three managers. Roy responded, “I’m complaining.”
Earlier Roy spoke of his understanding that a regular ambulance crew only need two certified people and that a third volunteer could be “any damn fool.” He added, “Maybe I’m the damn fool.” But, he went on to say, “If you ask me I’m a lot better than a lot of people on the ambulance service.”
Selectman Bruce Gould spoke directly to Roy acknowledging their work on ambulance in the past but that he supported the decisions made by Ambulance Director Cassidy and backed-up by Sutherland and Swanson. However, he said he wanted to make sure Roy understood more about the nature of the decision to rule against his coming back to the Woodstock rescue squad and would follow-up. Chair Grettie Howe said she didn’t feel she had enough knowledge to make any decision but took note of Roy’s complaint and agreed they would try to understand the decision-making better.
As a result of this rather awkward and uncomfortable public appeal for volunteer work from Roy, the Woodstock Selectboard ended the evening by going into executive session. Swanson said, “It’s a personnel matter.”
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 