Peralta returns rescue gurney to Bosque Farms

BOSQUE FARMS — A medical gurney that has garnered more attention than a kid in a celebrity custody dispute is back where it belongs.

After more than a month of back-and-forth emails between a local mayor and fire chief, a hydraulic gurney for the village of Bosque Farms ambulance that was lent to the town of Peralta over the summer has been returned.

In a Sept. 15 email from Bosque Farms Mayor Chris Gillespie to Bosque Farms Fire Chief Jason Schneider and other village fire personnel, the mayor writes the hydraulic gurney isn’t on board the rescue unit.

“That is a $20,000 piece of equipment that needs to be accounted for. Please advise,” Gillespie writes.

That was followed by a Sept. 16 email from Gillespie to Schneider saying the village’s ambulance is nearing the point of having all the needed licensing to put it back in operation.

“... we will need to have a state inspection ... Part of that inspection will require the hydraulic operated gurney that belongs in that unit to be in place and operating also. If you have that stored somewhere it needs to be returned to the unit. If you do not know where that system is, then please let me know that as well,” Gillespie writes.

Later that day, Schneider responded, telling the mayor that Peralta officials had asked to use the gurney and, since the village rescue unit wasn’t in use, loaning the neighboring municipality the gurney “seemed appropriate rather than letting it remain idle ... If you would please outline the time frame for the Bosque Farms rescue to reach this milestone (the certification inspections), we can work together to coordinate the appropriate return of the gurney.”

During a phone interview about the gurney situation on Monday, Nov. 3, Gillespie said he missed the chief’s Sept. 16 response.

“I didn’t see that until later, saying it was in Peralta,” the mayor said. “I followed that up (in an Oct. 21 email) saying if they don’t know where it is, I need to start an investigation. We have a detective (with the police department). Bluntly, none of that should have happened.”

Gillespie said he didn’t know when the gurney was lent to Peralta or that it had been loaned out at all. He said the fire chief or deputy chief should have gone to the mayor and village clerk with a proposal to lend out the equipment.

“If the mayor and clerk had accepted the proposal, then a resolution should have been presented to the council for consideration,” he said. “A term of use and conditions would have been set and at that time, the use of an item outside the village would have been sanctioned by the council.”

In the Oct. 21 email, Gillespie points out the gurney is worth about $28,000 and “the person, or persons who removed it, or ‘loaned’ it out have committed a larceny at a minimum level of a third degree felony ... Its loss would be the loss of the unit from the rescue while in the safekeeping of the fire department and its personnel and therefore will be replaced by a purchase of a new one from fire department funds if it is not found and returned ...”

Chief Schneider responded to Gillespie later that day, writing the gurney was not “misplaced or stolen,” and attached his previous email from Sept. 16, explaining it had been loaned to Peralta.

“I will reiterate what I stated in the email again, if you would please outline the time frame for the Bosque Farms rescue unit, we can work together with Peralta to have it returned in a time frame that aligns with that plan,” Schneider wrote.

He continued, writing it was completely inappropriate for the mayor to accuse and then threaten him or any member of the department.

“... the fact that you would resort to these tactics ... is unfortunate and despicable,” the chief wrote. “In the future, please refrain from making wild accusations and focus on communication and coordination so we can move everything forward.”

Ashley Means, the assistant fire chief for Peralta, said the municipality borrowed the gurney in June or July of this year while it was waiting for grant funding to buy its own hydraulic gurney. The funding came through and the needed equipment has been purchased, Means said Monday, and the Bosque Farms gurney returned.

“We have everything we need,” Means said when asked if the Peralta unit would be able to continue responding to medical calls.

Vernon Abeita, the volunteer EMS coordinator for Bosque Farms, confirmed the gurney was back in the village ambulance — Rescue 5 — “where it should be.” He indicated it was returned to the village on Oct. 23.

With the gurney back, the ambulance has to undergo an inspection by the New Mexico Department of Transportation for road-worthiness and by the state’s EMS bureau to re-certify the unit as an official rescue unit.

“We are going for a transport capable unit, which is the certification the village had before,” Abeita said Monday. “Most of the supplies came in (Monday) and there should be a few more (on Tuesday). Once it’s stocked, we can request the inspection.”

Abeita said he hopes to have the ambulance back in service by the middle of the month.

“We have a couple of applications (for EMTs) and once we run backgrounds on them, we’ll see when they can volunteer and run calls,” he said. “We will begin heavy recruiting in the next couple of weeks.”

In late September, Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp made a presentation to the village council, offering to supply EMS staff for the village’s rescue unit, essentially acting as a contractor to the village. The county’s proposal has an annual cost of $380,000 for staffing 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Gillespie said he had a recent conversation with Propp about the proposal but the cost is a concern.

“$380,000 is more than we can do. We discussed options we could afford, and we are continuing to look for a director,” the mayor said. “The minute we get ready we’ll start taking calls for service.”