Bosque Farms’ rescue is in service; concerns

BOSQUE FARMS — Rescue 5 is alive and on the streets as much as one person will allow it to be for now.

As of Tuesday, Feb. 3, the village of Bosque Farms ambulance — Rescue 5 — is fully certified and service-ready. Shortly after the announcement was made via email, the unit responded to a call, manned by the village’s volunteer EMS coordinator, which led to a dust-up between the mayor and a councilor.

“I am pleased to announce that Bosque Farms EMS has attained its EMS Certification for Medical Rescue for the Village of Bosque Farms. Bosque Farms EMS will be going ready to receive calls for service effective today. Volunteer rescue staff will notify central dispatch the time volunteers are available for the day,” wrote Bosque Farms volunteer EMS coordinator Vernon Abeita in an email sent out at 9:01 a.m. last week.

The message was sent to several people, including Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp, Tommy Sanchez, the director of the Valencia County Regional Emergency Communications Center, Bosque Farms Mayor Chris Gillespie and Bosque Farms Police Chief Owen.

Later that afternoon, Village Councilor James Bruhn sent his own email, stating he had “serious concern” about the mayor’s decision to put Rescue 5 into service without prior communication with the council, Bosque Farms Fire Department or “relevant county partners.”

Bruhn continued, saying there was “significant confusion and concern about the situation,” among the village’s fire department, Peralta Fire Department, the county department and VRECC.

“I must also be unequivocally clear: as Mayor, you do not have unilateral decision-making authority over life-saving agencies or emergency response operations across the county,” Bruhn’s email reads. “Further, your actions appear to be in direct conflict with Village of Bosque Farms ordinance and established emergency response protocols.”

Gillespie said Bruhn is “absolutely wrong. I do have the authority.” The mayor said all services in the village answer to the mayor and while some of the personnel who operate those services are with the concurrence of the council, not all of them are.

“Mr. Abeita was the quickest path I could come up with to get the system running, operational and properly licensed,” Gillespie said. “So, I wrote a letter and handed it to him. He is 100 percent volunteer and (the letter) gave him the authority to manage and maintain that (ambulance), to get it back in operational status.”

The mayor appointed Abeita the village’s volunteer EMS coordinator as of Aug. 1, 2025, a move that ruffled feathers on the council then. Abeita was the paid EMS director for the village from 2015 to 2020, and then served as the village clerk/administrator from June 2023 to March 2024.

Part of Abeita’s duties as the volunteer EMS coordinator includes reestablishing all of the state and federal licenses needed for the ambulance to be used to respond to emergency medical calls.

“It was not an easy endeavor to get the federal (Drug Enforcement Agency) license back. We had to do the whole thing over again. He had done it before so he knew what he was doing,” Gillespie said of Abeita. “On Feb. 2, that final license finally came in from the state and we all got pretty excited. Vernon told me, ‘I’m going to take a run or two.’ And I told him, ‘Fine, you bet.’

“He did everything 100 percent correctly. That’s Vernon. He does not mess around and does everything by the book. This was done 100 percent by the book.”

In his email, Bruhn also questioned whether Abeita was property certified to respond to medical calls.

“In addition, by permitting a single person to respond to medical calls without clear confirmation that they are properly certified at the BLS (Basic Life Support) or ALS (Advanced Life Support) level, you are potentially placing Bosque Farms residents in direct danger,” Bruhn’s email read. “Allowing uncertified or insufficiently trained personnel to handle medical emergencies is not only unsafe — it exposes the Village to significant legal and ethical risk.”

Gillespie said Abeita has all the licensing and certifications needed to answer calls.

According to documentation provided by Abeita, he is a paramedic level provider certified by the New Mexico Department of Health, a certification which expires in March 2028. Additionally, he is BLS certified, as well as in advanced cardiovascular life support, pediatric advanced life support, is a certified level I and II firefighter, has an associate of applied science in emergency medical services paramedic and numerous certificates from FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute.

Gillespie said Abeita is looking to reestablish the village’s volunteer EMS program, saying so far they have about four volunteers at this time. So long as volunteers have the proper credentials to “run the bus,” Gillespie said the plan is to let VRECC know when they are on shift and available to take calls.

“If they’re able to be out for four hours, or eight hours, they’ll know we’re available,” the mayor said. “We want to work with the county so we can augment their services and the whole county will benefit with our bus out there.

“Meanwhile, we are still looking for an EMS director for the village. We’re just thrilled we’re up and running.”

Bruhn demanded an emergency meeting of the council to address what he described as the mayor’s “unilateral actions” regarding the ambulance and EMS services in the village.

As of Monday, Feb. 9, no meeting has been scheduled.