WILTON – Temple has been part of the Wilton Ambulance Service since 1997, they are happy with the service, but they may leave because of the current formula for apportioning the costs among the four towns in the service. The formula was discussed last year when Greenfield joined, and was supposed to be reconsidered for this year, according to Temple Selectman Chairman Bill Ezell.

This year’s figures have Temple paying an additional $16,000, which Ezell said appears to them to be subsidizing Greenfield.

After almost an hour of discussion, they decided, if Greenfield selectmen are agreeable, the four boards of selectmen will meet in Wilton at 6 p.m. on Feb. 20.

“So we can tell our town meetings that it is being worked on,” Williams said. “We could have done a better job. People didn’t think there was enough data to change to a call-volume (formula) and decided to stay with the population figures.”

The Temple Select Board met with the Wilton board on Monday. The Lyndeborough selectmen were present but did not take part in the general discussion. Greenfield did not attend.

“Our budget committee didn’t change the appropriation,” Ezell said, “but the sense of the town isn’t particularly friendly.”

The disagreement stems from using population figures to determine apportionment of costs rather than calls-for-service, or a combination. “We don’t want to lose the service, but it probably won’t pass at town meeting,” Ezell said.

He added, “When Greenfield came in, we agreed to subsidize them for a year because in another year there would be a wider base. That agreement was reneged upon. We never saw a vote to amend (the contract).” He added, “If we could split that $16,000 by whatever means, but don’t expect Temple to pay it.”

Wilton Select Board Chairman Kermit Williams said the figures had been arrived at by the Ambulance Advisory Committee.

Lyndeborough Town Administrator Russ Boland is the AAC chairman, and he agreed the group was only advisory. “We need to all be talking about the same figures. We need to get our numbers straight.” All of the numbers have been challenged, he said. The committee has met several times, but there appears to be a lack of communication.

Ezell said, “In the past, we solved the service problems together.”

Asked why the number of calls in each town had not been received, there was no reason given. Lyndeborough Selectman Fred Douglas, a former Milford Police Chief, said, as he has as previous meetings, everything routed through Milford Area Communications Center is logged, and available in a few minutes, and he did not understand the delay.

A member of the audience asked about an offer to Temple from Peterborough to join their ambulance service.

Ezell was surprised by the question and said they had received that offer “cold, we didn’t contact them.” He said the offer depended on Greenfield returning to the Peterborough service “and we have not discussed it with them.”

Temple would much rather stay with Wilton, but the funding formula needs to be settled, and that process will begin on Feb. 20.