Claremont seeks bids for ambulance service contract starting in 2026

Claremont set out to lock in a new contracted ambulance provider for service that was set to begin July 1, 2026, with sealed proposals due April 15 and a public bid opening scheduled for April 17. The city’s procurement file shows the question was not whether ambulance coverage mattered, but who would run it and under what terms for a service that sits at the center of local emergency response.

The bid package included an ambulance request for proposals, an addendum and an ambulance bid tabulation summary, signs that the city was managing the process through formal procurement records rather than an informal renewal. That matters in Claremont because ambulance coverage affects 911 transport, staffing continuity and how smoothly emergency care connects with the fire department and other first responders.

Claremont Fire Department says it is staffed by 16 full-time firefighters, a full-time fire chief, two deputy chiefs, a part-time fire prevention coordinator and 9 call firefighters. The department responds to nearly 1,500 calls a year, a workload that makes the ambulance contract more than a back-office purchase. It is one of the links that determines whether a patient reaches care quickly, and whether the city’s public-safety system can keep pace with demand.

This was not Claremont’s first time soliciting ambulance coverage through a contractor. The city posted a similar request in 2021 for service beginning July 1, 2021, with proposals due April 19, 2021. The repeated use of a bid process suggests Claremont has continued to manage ambulance service as a formal municipal contract rather than as a fixed in-house function.

Golden Cross Ambulance, a private family-owned ambulance and wheelchair service, says it has served communities in Vermont and New Hampshire since 1962, employs about 50 full-time associates and staffs ambulances with two licensed medical team members. In Claremont, that work connects directly to Valley Regional Hospital, the only 24/7 staffed emergency department hospital in Sullivan County.

Valley Regional has served the Greater Claremont community since 1893 and joined Dartmouth Health in 2024 after state review. That puts the ambulance contract at the front end of a broader medical chain: city dispatch, Claremont Fire, ambulance transport and the county’s only round-the-clock emergency department. The city’s bid file shows Claremont was planning that chain carefully before the new contract date arrived.