Acting over strong objections from the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital emergency room director, Chilmark selectmen voted unanimously to appoint Paul (Zeke) Wilkins as permanent chief of the Tri-Town Ambulance Service on Tuesday night.

Dr. Jeffrey Zack, director of the hospital ER, said he had reservations about whether the new chief had enough paramedic experience to be able to lead the squad that serves Chilmark, Aquinnah and West Tisbury.

“This is about providing quality care,” Dr. Zack told the selectmen.

“While he [Mr. Wilkins] may meet the needs of the position from an administrative and morale standpoint, he is not qualified for the role that is more sorely needed on this service, and that is quality assurance and training.

“Zeke can’t provide that yet, not to the level of my expectations.”

An EMT with 10 years of experience, Mr. Wilkins has only been a paramedic for one year. Under state rules, all town ambulance services must now provide paramedic-level service.

Mr. Wilkins has been interim Tri-Town chief since February after former chief Robert Bellinger resigned.

Mr. Wilkins will now work with Dr. Zack to receive added training and instruction.

“Whatever Dr. Zack wants us to do, I’m 100 per cent willing,” Mr. Wilkins said. “He’s done a lot for this service, much more than any other director of emergency services we’ve had before. He is on top of it; he understands what it is like to be up here, and what it takes to respond.”

Chilmark selectmen are the financial overseers and appointing authority for the head of the Tri-Town Ambulance Service. There is also a Tri-Town Ambulance Committee made up of police chiefs and people appointed by the selectmen in the three towns.

The committee voted to recommend Mr. Wilkins be appointed chief after another candidate from Connecticut who had been offered the job withdrew.

Chilmark selectman Frank Fenner said he thought it was time to make the appointment and move on. “Personally I feel that the ambulance staff has gone on far too long without having a stable leadership,” Mr. Fenner said.

Chilmark police chief Brian Cioffi agreed. “We’ve had a fractured ambulance service that hasn’t been functioning well for an extended period of time,” he said.

Dr. Zack reiterated his concerns.

“This is not about throwing Zeke under the bus . . . Zeke has done a great job,” he said. “My goal is to have Tri-Town be better than other towns because they have to be. They’re farther away from the hospital, they spend more time with patients, they need to be better trained than the guys in Oak Bluffs. The issue is that you do less runs. Medicine is about practice and the less you do, the weaker your seals get.”

He continued: “You’ve got great folks working out here, a great young group that are going to be stellar medics but they have learning to do and my job is to provide guidance and that setup.”

In other business, Bret Stearns, director of natural resources for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), reported on a $181,590 grant the tribe received from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to coordinate the management of Menemsha Pond among Chilmark, Aquinnah and the tribe.

“The grant will strengthen what we do and enhance our resources,” Mr. Stearns said.

Selectmen also considered calling a special town meeting for voters to decide whether or not Chilmark should share the debt in repairs needed at the West Tisbury School, and tentatively decided against it.