PASCSCK VALLEY—A recent request from the Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps — which serves Montvale, Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake — for up to $100,000 per town appears to have the general support of the three area mayors to increase funding for the 84-year-old volunteer ambulance service.
How much each town approves for a proposed Tri-Boro volunteer stipend program will likely be decided over upcoming budget negotiations and borough council discussions among the towns throughout January.
“The representatives of the three towns have to meet to discuss the stipend. I don’t think that anyone has agreed to the $100,000, but we are in general agreement to give a stipend,” Rendo told Pascack Press Jan. 3.
In emails between the mayors during December, we see strong support for the stipend program to help recruit and retain dedicated volunteer professionals. Each town contributes $20,000 annually to the volunteer ambulance corps.
In late September, the Tri-Boro VAC requested a $100,000 budget bump from each town to help establish a volunteer stipend program that would offer volunteers contributing 60 or more hours per month a stipend of $750 per month.
The corps said such a stipend program would help recruit and retain volunteers, who must maintain increasing state training and certification requirements to serve on a volunteer basis.
In an email to the Woodcliff Lake and Park Ridge mayors Dec. 15, Montvale Mayor Michael Ghassali states, “I would be in support of the payment and avoid to the best that we can a paid ambulance service.” The volunteer corps’ request estimated a private ambulance service could cost a million dollars, or more, to establish for the three towns.
A Dec. 15 email from Woodcliff Lake Mayor Carlos Rendo to business administrator Tom Padilla notes, “I met with mayors Ghassali and Misciagna concerning Tri-Boro. They are in agreement as to the stipend. I would like to appoint Councilwoman Higgins to be the point person for us on this issue,” wrote Rendo. Higgins is also a volunteer ambulance corps member.
At the Dec. 22 council meeting, Rendo appointed Higgins, councilman Benjamin Pollack and councilwoman Jennifer Margolis to a committee to address the issue. Rendo said that it was up to the Borough Council to decide how much they ultimately wanted to contribute to the corps “to keep the ambulance corps functioning at levels that we need to have them functioning at.”
Ghassali told Pascack Press Jan. 3 that the borough’s budget committee would consider the funding request at its Jan. 9 meeting, and he said though no formal meeting had been held, he believed “a majority” of council supported the funding. He said a resolution on funding the increase was likely at an upcoming meeting.
He said while some research he had done estimated the costs of the stipend program at between $60,000 to $100,000 annually, an appropriation of $100,000 would make sense, with whatever funds that were not needed being returned to the town.
He also noted the three towns would be further discussing the best approach to working with nearby nursing homes and assisted living facilities who have been regularly using the volunteer ambulance service to transport patients for non-emergency calls.
He said that charging them a fee or possibly fining them might pressure the facilities to hire their own ambulance services. He said though most facilities had agreed to hire private ambulances, they generally use the Tri-Boro squad, putting a strain on its resources. He said how to handle such calls was “still in discussion” between the towns.
Officials familiar with the Tri-Boro request (we posted the letter on our website, pascackpress.com) told Pascack Press that without an increase in funding to retain certified emergency volunteers, the towns face a possibility that they may need to obtain alternate or private ambulance services to provide 24/7 coverage from a full-time, paid, professional company that could potentially cost $1 million or more, yearly.
Right now, some volunteers receive nominal pension compensation via the state’s LOSAP program, which is for emergency services volunteers enrolled (generally after five continuous years of service) in the Length of Service Awards Program.
The volunteer ambulance corps has served the tri-borough area for 84 years, and lately has experienced declines in volunteers due to Covid-19, lack of volunteer time for two-income families, plus growing state certification demands for EMS volunteers.
In a letter sent to Montvale councilman Chris Roche on Oct. 19, 2022 titled TBVAC Stipend Proposal, the corps said the Covid-19 pandemic made volunteer recruitment and retention difficult.
Rendo said that some nursing homes in the tri-borough area were using the ambulance service to provide medical assistance and transportation, despite previously agreeing to contract with private ambulance services for their residents. He said administrator Tom Padilla was helping with the situation and trying to liaise.
Noting Tri-Boro’s request for funding, he said, “But still they need help in recruitment, in keeping the levels of participation at its high and to make sure that our communities are serviced.”
Park Ridge Mayor Keith Misciagna added, “We (mayors) all feel that we can generate much of the necessary funding by submitting bills to insurance companies of those individuals using Tri-Boro that have medical insurance while still providing the service free of charge to those individuals that do not have coverage. That would be a change in how Tri-Boro does business but may just be the answer we need.”