The Woolwich Select Board on Monday night unanimously approved new rates for the town’s ambulance service. The increase will bring the town more in line with Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, said Chairman David King Sr. EMS Director Brian Carlton recommended the change.

Woolwich EMS becomes the town’s full-time ambulance provider July 1. Under the new rate schedule, the patient charge for non-emergency advanced life-saving calls increases from $450 to $500; advance life-saving emergency calls increases from $480 to $700.

Non-emergency basic life-saving calls increase from $300 to $400 and basic life-saving emergency calls go from $350 to $550. The mileage fee increases from $10 to $14 per mile. The response fee will remain at $75.

Carlton said he’s researching an option for leasing a cardiac monitor through a government program. He told the board he could make the first payment from this year’s EMS budget and rely on fundraising and monies from the 2019-20 budget to finance the rest.

King said the board would need to review the contract before acting. He added the McElman family, owners of Bath Subaru, had approached the town office about possibly donating funds to the ambulance service as part of the coming year’s Subaru of America“Share the Love” campaign. The dealership has made previous donations to the local historical society.

The board signed a contract to have T.G. Higgins Business Services of Winterport as the ambulance department’s billing agent. And the board unanimously waived a public hearing and renewed a liquor license for the Taste of Maine Restaurant on Route 1.

The board made the following appointments: Evan Holbrook, agricultural/forest resources committee; Gaius Hennin and Leigh Callahan, planning board; Timothy Larochelle, shellfish committee; Donald Adams and Linda Potts-Crawford, solid waste committee; Janet Stephen, special events committee; Stephen Lackovic, shellfish committee; Jay Collins and James B. Todd, public communications committee; and Jack Shaw, board of appeals.

Monday’s meeting was held in the 1837 Town House at the junction of the Old Stage and Dana Mills roads. The tradition of meeting there once every June was started in 1996. The landmark yellow building has no plumbing or electricity. Power to illuminate the building’s overhead lamps was supplied by two car batteries attached to an inverter, said King. Woolwich contractor Jack Shaw and Sons supplied a porta potty.

According to “History of Woolwich, Maine: A Town Remembered,” the town house was paid for with monies the community received from the federal government, the result of the liquidation of the National Debt. It was President Andrew Jackson who deserves the credit for that; when he left office America was debt free.

Congress agreed to disperse these surplus funds to the states, we th the Maine legislature choosing to allocate its share to its cities and towns to do with as they pleased. Woolwich voters chose to use their money, $800, to buy land and build the town house. William Leonard, a local carpenter, was hired to build the 40-foot by 35-foot building that has always been painted its distinctive shade of yellow.

In February 1976, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.