Mums the Word on Cash for the First Aid Squad
“I’m not going to answer any more questions on this,” (First Aid Squad) Mayor Lori Hohenleitner told this resident during the public portion of the last Atlantic Highlands Council meeting.
Not certain I heard her completely and not wanting to believe an elected official would actually publicly decline to answer a question on something as important as the First Aid Squad, I asked the mayor to repeat what she said.
Unfortunately, I had heard correctly. The Mayor repeated her refusal to respond to a question of whether the borough is giving the local First Aid Squad any money towards the purchase of a new ambulance.
Councilman Jon Crowley took a more courteous attitude and stepped into the talk. Although he did not respond to the specific question, he did say he felt the First Aid Squad is very close to making an announcement of their own about the fundraising the squad itself has been doing. “They’re pretty well done, “he said, “they’re very close.”
My questions came after Borough Administrator Robert Ferragina read from figures provided him by Lance Hubeny, Chief of the First Aid Squad, that the volunteers had responded to 170 EMS calls between October 2023 and this past February, an average of more than 30 calls a month. When I asked how that compared to the number of calls Hackensack Meridian had answered in the same time period, I was advised, accurately enough, that that number was announced at the previous meeting. No one would repeat them at this meeting.
Yet Ferragina did say they were included on the same sheet Hubeny had given him so he could report on the squad’s response.
Although he did not read the paid service’s calls, but suggesting if I seek any further information I should ask Hubeny, I did.
The First Aid squad Chief, upon request, showed me that during the time period the volunteer squad responded to 170 calls, an average of 34 a month, the paid service from Hackensack responded to 81 calls, or an average of 16 per month. The service is paid $90,000 a year to respond to emergency calls in the borough between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The volunteers cover all calls between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m., as well as weekends.
The most Hackensack responded to any month was 19 during December, the same month volunteers responded to 42 calls. The least Hackensack responded to was 13, the number of calls in both October and February. During those two months, volunteers responded to 38 calls in October and 24 in February, 24 being the least amount of calls they responded to in any single month.
Both Hubeny and Ferragina explained that Hackensack, whose contract is with Highlands and Highlands then subcontracts the services to Atlantic Highlands for the $90,000 cost assessed to each borough, was first contracted for the borough at a time when there were insufficient squad members to respond to calls during routine working hours. Since that time, however, Hubeny took over as Chief of the squad, and with squad members Captain Ann Schoeller, Lt. Tim Farkas, 2nd Lt. Brian BOMs and 2nd Lt. Mike Berth, has been able to rejuvenate and reenergize the squad. Currently, there are 22 members regularly answering calls as opposed to a time when only eight were responding. Additionally, there are more members being certified, with five in EMT school, two more recertifying earlier certifications and even a father and daughter teem volunteering as EMTS.
However, Hubeny pointed out, the fear now is transportation. While he feels the borough is adequately covered by volunteers even during daylight hours, the fact the squad is reduced to a single ambulance, and that one past its prime, he is reluctant to turn away the paid services until the squad can have something more reliable to depend on.
For that reason, the squad itself, as Ferragina also indicated, has been raising its own funds and has met with many generous local residents to help them meet their goal of purchasing at least a used unit to offer more security and protection – financial help is still needed. A new ambulance costs in the neighborhood of $350,000, however, it is generally more than two years waiting for it once it is ordered.
