Joint rescue squad urged

PHILADELPHIA — An Antwerp resident and paramedic is urging the towns of Antwerp, Theresa and Philadelphia to consolidate their emergency medical response teams under a single service, which he'd like to see based in the village of Philadelphia.

Lance Ronus, who works full-time as a paramedic for Gouverneur Rescue Squad and volunteers as one with the Antwerp Volunteer Fire Department, told the town councils of Philadelphia and Antwerp at their regular monthly meetings last week that consolidating services under a nonprofit, combined paid and volunteer team would provide better coverage for all three areas.

At the Philadelphia Town Council meeting Thursday, Supervisor Cheryl K. Horton and other council members welcomed the idea.

Personnel shortages have been a worry "for many years," Ms. Horton said Tuesday.

"The state has very stringent and expensive training requirements, and it's difficult to find volunteers to fill positions," she said. Especially rare are volunteers willing to commit the time and money needed to qualify for the highest level of emergency medical response, advanced life support.

The equipment needed for that level of care is far more expensive, too, Mr. Ronus said. Antwerp does not have that capacity. Advanced life support services include techniques like starting intravenous lines, using a heart monitor to diagnose a heart attack and administering a broad range of medications not allowed at lower certification levels.

Theresa and Philadelphia have the advanced life support equipment, fire department officials said, but Theresa has only one volunteer with the advanced training to use it, according to Caleb Monica, a volunteer firefighter with the town's fire district.

Randy G. Turner, chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department and Ambulance Service, a village department that serves the town under contract, said response times and volunteer shortages can be a problem during workdays when volunteers are busy.

"Last night we had a call about 4 p.m. and we waited 15 minutes to get an EMT there," he said.

Though Mr. Ronus hadn't approached him yet with the consolidation proposal, Mr. Turner said that model "would improve service tremendously" in all three towns.

A major improvement, both men said, is that responders on duty could "jump in an ambulance and go," instead of the current system, which relies on volunteers to drop what they're doing in their daily lives and head to the firehouse to respond to a call.

In Theresa, that system has broken down to the point where the ambulance rarely responds to calls, Mr. Monica said. "There are only a few (EMTs) that do show up, and it's kind of hard for them to go to every call."

When the nearest ambulance service can't respond, those from neighboring towns do. And Watertown-based Guilfoyle Ambulance Service can fill in local coverage gaps anywhere in Jefferson County, Mr. Ronus said.

But the three-town consolidation he proposes would help the area maintain a local, community-based service rather than ceding calls to Guilfoyle, as other towns have done with the decline of their local volunteer services.

Taking care of one's neighbors is "the greatest pride in being a volunteer," Mr. Ronus said.

Antwerp Supervisor John R. Shaw said the Town Council expressed interest in the proposal.

Town of Theresa Supervisor Clinton A. Coolidge said Mr. Ronus had not yet brought the issue before the council, but he acknowledged a manpower shortage on the town's emergency medical response team.

"One of my concerns is, where is the ambulance going to be stored?" he said. "That could add call time. The groups all need to sit down and talk to each other."