As of 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, when a contract was signed between the town and Firefighters Union Local No. 1205, the town has full paramedic service.

"This is probably one of the most monumental decisions in the last 18 years, since emergency medical technicians came to the fire service in 1986," said Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. "It's probably the biggest, best service ever to happen to East Haven. I firmly believe this probably start saving lives in East Haven today."

Maturo told a crowd of about 75 people that plans on the project started a year ago when he had a conversation with Fire Chief Wayne Sandford. In previous years, fire department personnel had to call an ambulance via American Medical Response. Now all calls will be dispatched out of fire headquarters.

The upgrade gives East Haven residents and visitors the highest level of emergency service medical service allowed in Connecticut. Paramedics will be able do such things as to giving nitroglycerin for angina attacks, inserting breathing tubes, do electrocardiograms on site and manually regulate the heart with a defibrillator.

"My heart goes out to members of the East Haven Fire Department who will go out and save lives," said Maturo. "We had some paramedics who couldn't use their expertise. When they went on a call, they weren't allowed by the state to do certain things until we had a license."

As far as cost to taxpayers, the cost to implement the program is $50,000, including $7,000 in medication that will be carried on the truck. Another major expenditure will be stipends to the paramedics, which were part of the negotiations with the firefighters' union. The stipends are split between the paramedics based on seniority.

For $50,000 a year, it's a small price to pay," said Maturo. "How do you put a value on a life?"

Assistant Fire Chief Paul Cahill, who did a lot of the leg work to get the program started, by hiring nine previously certified paramedics, the town saved $270,000 in education costs.

Marty Lendroth, the president of Local 1205, said that the union is looking forward to giving the best possible service in town.
"We were 100 percent behind this from Day One," said Lendroth. "This is a new chapter in the history of the East Haven Fire Department."

At some point, the fire department hopes to add vehicles and personnel so it can be out on more than emergency call at a time.

"We have one vehicle to get started," said Sandford. "The plan is that as the medics grow and we intend to get more as the numbers increases, we'll probably put a paramedic station in the Foxon firehouse."

Paramedics will work the same schedule of hours as firefighters. Currently, East Haven firefighters work either 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. They work three days on, then three days off, three nights on and then three days off.

In addition to the full paramedic service, the radio system at the fire department has been upgraded. The system was low band, while the police was on the ultra high band.

"We're now on the same band," said Sandford. "That was a big problem on Sept. 11 in New York when the police and firefighters couldn't communicate. Even in a small community like East Haven, we wanted to fix the problem, so now every firefighter can talk to every police officer in town."

The majority of the cost to upgrade the radio system came via a $287,000 grant.