PASCACK VALLEY—Faced with declining volunteer membership, increasing numbers of calls, more high-density developments — plus calls from assisted living facilities and nursing homes that have stretched the resources of the Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps to the brink — the volunteer organization is requesting more support and funding, up to $100,000 from each of its three towns.
Representatives from Woodcliff Lake, Park Ridge and Montvale are meeting in January to discuss the squad’s request to increase funding up to $100,000 from each of the three towns, in addition to each towns’ current annual support of $20,000.
Without an increase in funding to retain certified emergency volunteers, the towns might need to obtain alternate or private ambulance services to provide 24/7 coverage from a full-time, paid, professional company that could cost a million dollars, or more, yearly, said one corps volunteer.
The $100,000 request would be to start a stipend program to compensate volunteers who contribute over 60 hours per month, which would accrue to $750 monthly.
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, TBVAC Stipend Proposal, sent to Montvale councilman Chris Roche on Oct. 19, the corps said the Covid-19 pandemic made volunteer recruitment and retention difficult.
“For years we have kept the mayors updated on our troubled volunteer status, but COVID has made our situation dire, as some of our members chose to stop riding for their own personal safety and that of families. Similar to our mutual aid partners, our own volunteer numbers are down and we can no longer provide nor rely on those mutual aid partners moving forward,” said the letter, signed “All the members of Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps.”
“As we are a required service for the towns/boroughs we serve, we are hoping to come up with an amicable solution to keep us operating as a volunteer agency. We would like the towns to offer our members a stipend which will need to be supported by the three towns, both financially and administratively. We think this will help in staffing scheduled crews, 24/7,” the volunteers said.
“We feel this is the last resort before having to turn into a paid service. An estimated cost could be over a million dollars a year in operating and capital expenses per town,” said the TBVAC.
Reached Dec. 23, Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps president Heather McGee declined to comment, citing the upcoming meeting with the mayors on the matter.
Typically, said the ambulance corps website, the service responds to “as many as 1,600 calls for help including serious medical emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, injuries suffered at home, at work, in school, or on the many sport and recreation fields in our communities.”
Briefly, the corps’ proposed stipend program would pay a qualified volunteer a flat $750 monthly for meeting 60 or more volunteer hours per month. Compensation only applies to months where 60 or more hours are contributed.
Members can qualify for one, two or three months of a quarter; volunteers do not need to meet the 60-hour mandate for all three months to receive compensation, said the letter. A volunteer who meets monthly 60-hour requirements for 12 months could receive $9,000 yearly if the stipend program is funded.
“We believe that the time has come for a stipend program to maintain the ambulance corps and to continue to provide ambulance service to our community and save the boroughs’ money. A generous estimate foreach town to budget would be $100,000 a year. We are estimating approximately 20 members to qualify each month, some months may be less and some months, like summer when college members are home, may be more. Please note that this stipend would be independent of our already operational stipend of $20,000 a year per town,” said the TBVAC.
The letter suggests one way for towns to recoup some costs of a stipend program would be for towns to hire a “per diem ambulance corps administrator to bill insurance companies” as well as medical facilities using Tri-Boro as a transport service.
“While we take no issue with being called to true medical emergencies at these sites, more often than not we are called for protocols that a patient must go to the hospital based on something happening, with no injury. We are happy to discuss in further detail with you at any time,” added the service.
Park Ridge Mayor Keith Misciagna said Tri-Boro “is an important part of our community and their service is extremely valuable as they provide the service at no charge.” He said the mayor and council would discuss the corps’ request at its next meeting.
He said following a meeting with mayors Rendo and Ghassali on the matter, “We 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,” Misciagna told Pascack Press on Dec. 26.
“Much of the detail would have to be worked out but we believe it’s a viable option and we are exploring it,” he added.
1,600 calls a year
Councilwoman Josephine Higgins, a Tri-Boro volunteer, said preliminary research that she conducted found out that a paid ambulance service would be costly to taxpayers.
Higgins said volunteers often must come directly from work to respond to calls and stressed it’s difficult to be a volunteer. She said her research showed “it would be close to a million dollars” to run a local ambulance service with paid professionals 24/7 for residents.
She said she hoped that upcoming meetings with mayors and council members could “move this forward” to help the ambulance corps.
“People don’t realize how many calls we make until they need an ambulance. And so please support the ambulance corps, Higgins said.
During the Borough Council’s Dec. 22 meeting, Mayor Carlos Rendo said a letter to all three towns from Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps said they were losing several volunteer members, and noted they were asking for an annual funding increase from all three towns covered by the ambulance service.
Rendo said he met with mayors Michael Ghassali of Montvale and Keith Misciagna of Park Ridge about the request. “They’re seeking $100,000 per community, per town.”
“We are discussing it during the budget meetings coming up. We need to support our ambulance volunteers and are working with our hospital and assisted living facilities to have them use their own ambulance services,” emailed Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali Dec. 23.
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.”
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 act as a liaison.
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,” he said.
Rendo said the council’s next step is to “figure out the level of funding” for [2023’s] ambulance budget.
Rendo said that Josephine Higgins, an ambulance corps member, has been involved in negotiations, and councilwoman Jennnifer Margolis said she would volunteer to meet with other town and corps representatives to reach a mutual agreement on funding.
Padilla said when administrators recently met to discuss the reservoir nature trail, the ambulance corps situation was briefly noted, and administrators agreed that an early 2023 meeting with administrators, mayors and council members be held, “so that we’re all on the same page,” regarding the ambulance corps.
Gadaleta said that she spoke with recently elected Democratic councilman Benjamin Pollack and recommended that Pollack be part of the upcoming Tri-Boro ambulance meetings, based on some ideas he expressed to her.
“The more the merrier,” said Rendo, agreeing with Padilla that the committee must be kept to three people. Padilla noted that the committee should be set up after the reorganization meeting on Jan. 5.
Higgins said the ambulance corps has been around since 1938. She said though many nearby nursing homes had “developer’s agreements” where they agreed to employ private ambulance services for residents, the Tri-Boro squad has been getting “more and more” calls from nursing homes.
She said some nursing homes had agreed to do shared ambulance arrangements with other nursing homes but these were never done. She said the three mayors had been meeting together to discuss the corps’ situation.
According to the corps’ website, “Today’s members are trained EMTs putting in some 160 hours plus in training. They currently have three ‘state of the art’ ambulances and are often assisted by an Advanced Life Support unit which are dispatched from area hospitals,” says the site.
The site notes the corps currently has 62 members, active and inactive. It provides no breakdown for either group.
“They operate by assigning crews to cover specific hours during every 24-hour period. If more than one ambulance is needed this then requires a “general call.” This type of call relies on the availability of off-duty members. As in most every community, the daytime demand for members is high. Currently there is a complex system of Mutual Aid that covers the Pascack Valley towns. When one town cannot get an ambulance in service another town with an ambulance crew available will answer the call,” notes the website.
The corps’ ambulances are often seen at community events, picnics, fireworks, and other special occasions. The corps is an independent, not-for-profit organization “dedicated to providing emergency medical services, non-emergency ambulance transportation and safety training to the Tri-Boro community,” reads its mission statement.
“We are staffed solely by volunteers and are funded mainly through contributions and the generous support of the three municipal governments. All of our services are provided free of charge. The Corps is run by officers and a Board of Governors,” the statement concludes.
A bolded headline on the ambulance website reads “Urgent – Members Needed.”