Edgartown fire chief Peter Shemeth told the town selectmen this week that the Edgartown emergency medical service is upgrading to a full-time paramedic unit. The switch comes on the heels of changed state regulations requiring full-time emergency personnel to be at a paramedic level in order to keep their certification.

“Starting way back when, it [paramedic service] was almost nonexistent,” Mr. Shemeth said. “We’ve progressed a lot . . . we’re always trying to ramp it up another step to give a better quality of service.”

Funding for the upgrade was included in the current EMS budget, Mr. Shemeth said. Current EMS personnel will be given a grace period to become certified; meanwhile the service has hired Jake Sylvia as a full-time paramedic.

“It gives us a lot more flexibility and a higher level of care throughout the town,” Mr. Shemeth said.

The selectmen also approved new underground conduits to be installed on Morse street between two neighbors, pending a written letter satisfying one of the neighbors, Fletcher Hodges. The new conduits will provide power and telephone service to both Mr. Hodges and applicant Joseph Coffey, but Mr. Hodges wanted assurance Mr. Coffey will foot the entire bill and the conduit will not cross property lines.

“Mr. Coffey says they will pay all costs; without a letter we are not protected. I am absolutely opposed to going forward with this project until we have this in writing from Mr. Coffey,” Mr. Hodges said. “I’d like the letter to also reflect the extension of the wire will run across their land and not mine. That’s important to us to do that.”

Before the project can begin, NStar must check to see if Mr. Hodges has an existing letter of permission to receive power from Mr. Coffey’s pole. Robert Burnham, Mr. Coffey’s representative at the hearing, said the Coffeys would not leave Mr. Hodges without a power supply.

In other business, Martha’s Vineyard Television executive director Julienne Turner appeared before the board to explain the public access cable television station’s capital reserve fund that has been the subject of discussion in recent weeks. Under the terms of the current contract, MVTV currently receives five per cent of Comcast’s gross revenue, which comes to about $415,000 a year. MVTV has saved $450,000 from that money for its capital reserve fund for upgrades, Ms. Turner said.

Negotiations are under way for a new 10-year contract with Comcast for Island cable service.

Ms. Turner told the Edgartown selectmen that MVTV’s plan for the next 10 years includes an expanded facility, new equipment and better coverage.

“We’ve found our activities are very limited due to the fact that we don’t have space,” she said. “We are in need of training classrooms and a rest room facility. We want to increase the membership at our organization and improve production quality on our three channels.”