MEXICO — The directors of Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance Service Inc. voted unanimously Wednesday to name Paul Landry Jr. director and chief of operations for Med-Care Ambulance Service.

Paul Landry Jr. Rumford Falls Times file photo

He has been acting director since March 2021.

Med-Care, which is governed by the board of directors of Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance Service, serves 11 towns in Oxford and Franklin counties. The board is comprised of representatives from Andover, Byron, Canton Dixfield, Hanover, Mexico, Newry, Peru, Roxbury and Rumford in Oxford County, and Carthage in Franklin County.

Board President Bob Chase said Landry has done “a great job during the transitional period and during a challenging pandemic.”

“The organization is excited to continue to provide excellent EMS services to our communities under Paul’s leadership and guidance,” he said.

Terms of the contract are still being determined, he said.

Landry said Monday that being acting director gave him an opportunity “to figure some things out and to show what I was capable of. So it turned out to be a good fit.”

He said all full-time positions at Med-Care are filled.

“I think a lot of that has to do with the morale and the atmosphere here,” he said. “We really do have a family atmosphere.”

Landry said one of the things former Director Dean Milligan emphasized to him was taking care of the staff and making sure they are happy.”

He said one of the challenges Med-Care is facing is more calls. Last year, it had 4,753, exceeding the previous high of 4,094 in 2017.

It’s always something to monitor, he said, because they have to keep within their budget.

The number of calls in January has not eased, he said, and if it keeps up “we’ll complete 2022 with over 4,800 calls,” he said.

Landry had served as deputy director since 2018. Before that, he was a firefighter/paramedic for the Athol (Massachusetts) Fire Department.