Village Ambulance Service began operations on May 27, 1982. The building was formally a Sunoco gas station, and was renovated so that it could comfortably house the new service. Emergency dispatch continued to be provided by the Williamstown Police Department. At the time of its inception, there was 26 EMTs working for the service. Of the 26, two were EMT-Intermediates, two were Registered Nurses, and one was a Licensed Practical Nurse. The new service, like its predecessor Hopkins Ambulance Service, provided emergency and non-emergency transfer service to the residents of Williamstown, New Ashford, and Hancock, Massachusetts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Soon after its founding, the new Village Ambulance Service sponsored an EMT class at Williams College as part of its dedication to improving emergency medical care for the local residents. The class began over winter study in 1983 and was taught by Bruce Homestead and Dave Tauberm, two paramedics from Northampton. The class, which was not sponsored by the college, was taken by the students in addition to their Winter Study class. Students in the class learned numerous life-saving techniques including CPR, splinting, wound bandaging, backboarding, and auto extrication. The students received a minimum of 100 hours class time, which involved both lectures and practical labs, 10 hours of observation in the local emergency department, and 16 hours of experience gained by riding as a third provider on a Village ambulance. By passing the Massachusetts EMT examination, the students would be certified as EMTs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The number of calls Village Ambulance Service was receiving continued to increase throughout this period, with the service averaging about 80 calls a month during the summer and 120 calls a month in the winter due in large part to the ski season. The total number of calls yearly reached 730. The service had nearly 30 EMTs employed, and was being supported by donations from over 1,100 subscribers plus the money it received billing for its services.
An important advancement in the delivery of emergency medical care in Williamstown occurred in 1985, when, as part of a trial project, Village Ambulance Service received the first ever license from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to allow its EMT-Is to use semi-automatic defibrillators. Because it was a trial project, no other ambulance service at that time, in the Commonwealth, was allowed to use such an advanced piece of emergency medical equipment. In 1989, a new level of EMT was formed by the state, the EMT-D (EMT with defibrillator training).
As part of its celebration of its bicentennial in 1992, Williams College provided $130,000 to the service for the purpose of constructing a new headquarters. The EMTs were allowed to design and outfit the base as they saw fit. Village Ambulance Service moved to the new base, its present location, in April 1993. The move was a well timed one, as the cost of rent for the previous base had been steadily increasing and was greatly taxing the service's budget. In 1994, the service purchased two new ambulances and added them to the two ambulances already in use.
Today, Village Ambulance Service continues to provide a high level of emergency medical service to the residents of Williamstown, New Ashford, Hancock, and Pownal, VT. Currently, there are 50 EMTs employed by the service, of which 35 are EMT-Basics, 5 are EMT-Is, and 10 are Paramedics. In 2005, Village Ambulance Service offered emergency medical service to approximately 2500 call requests.
What is unique about Village Ambulance Service is that throughout their history they have always pioneered new methods in emergency medical care and have been at a level well above most other ambulance services.
