MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury Regional Emergency Medical Services (MREMS) board on Monday elected a new slate of officers, headed by David Pistilli, new chairman of the panel.
Pistilli’s priorities for the nonprofit include planning (and saving resources) for replacement of MREMS’ fleet of ambulances, retiring the organization’s debt and searching for a new executive director.
Middlebury Regional EMS has had a busy and eventful year that has included a great deal of flux in its executive director position. Bill Edson resigned from the post in May 2014 to take the top administrative post at the Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center in Gardner, Mass.
He was replaced by Ric Lavallee. But Lavallee agreed to move on early this summer after having served in the job for just 10 weeks, according to Pistilli.
“He was not a good fit for the organization and did not mesh well with the people, the mission and peer organizations we work with,” Pistilli said.
Lavallee came to Middlebury by way of Atlanta, Ga., where he had served as director of the American Medical Response (AMR) service of Dekalb County.
Pistilli stressed MREMS has not experienced any leadership lapse since Lavallee’s departure, thanks to two senior staffers, who for the past four months have been serving as acting co-directors of what is the largest ambulance service in Addison County: Tina Betourney and Lisa Northup. Betourney is MREMS’ communications supervisor, event planner and person in charge of billing, while Northup is the organization’s financial manager.
Middlebury Regional EMS is best known for providing a variety of ambulance and heavy rescue services to 10 Addison County communities covering a population of roughly 18,000 people over 400 square miles.
“The board asked us to step up,” Betourney said, and the two women were happy to do it.
“Things are going pretty well,” she added.
Looking into the future, Betourney and Northup are keen on seeing MREMS set aside more of its revenues for eventual replacement of ambulances and other vital equipment.
Pistilli said board members are pleased with the Betourney-Northup leadership team, leaving them confident to address other MREMS issues before embarking on a new executive director search.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].