Council awards $139,000 contract to Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corp.
By: Kip Berman
HIGHTSTOWN The Borough Council was poised this week to award a $139,000 contract for emergency medical services for 2006.
However, the company in line to get the deal was not St. Francis EMS, the one that served the borough for the past year, most of the time for free.
Council members were expected to vote at a special meeting Thursday night to award the pact to the Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corp. (MONOC) to provide basic life support ambulance service, according to the council agenda posted Thursday on the borough Web site. The decision was expected after the Herald’s deadline.
A dismayed official with St. Francis said Thursday that its bid was $139,700.
"We’re upset. We invested over $100,000 in the borough. We had no problems or complaints," said Kevin Wallis, director of emergency medical technicians.
"Our relationship with police and the community was terrific," he added. "We tried to do the right thing and we don’t feel we were treated fairly."
As pointed out in the council’s planned resolution, as a professional services contract, the award is not subject to competitive bidding requirements.
Early this week, Councilman Larry Quattrone said the borough was choosing between two proposals ranging from $140,000 to $150,000. He added that whichever provider was chosen, it would be required to allow Hightstown’s volunteer squad members to ride along.
On Thursday, Councilman Quattrone declined to comment on the reasons why council was poised to choose MONOC. He did say that the $25,000 annually budgeted for the local volunteer rescue squad would not be in jeopardy as a result of the pending contract.
Mayor Bob Patten could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Faced with a dearth of volunteers, the borough was forced in 2004 to investigate outsourcing EMS services. St. Francis EMS, a nonprofit company, agreed to provide around-the-clock services virtually free of charge and apparently began doing so in January 2005.
The issue sparked bad feelings when local first aid members claimed they were left in the dark on the pending agreement with St. Francis. But borough records seemed to refute that claim.
Meanwhile this year, St. Francis found itself responding to calls outside the borough, for which it would be paid. So, on Nov. 21 the Borough Council voted to pay St. Francis $17,000 to stay on until Jan. 2. The bulk of that payment, $15,000, was to come from The Peddie School’s annual donation to the borough for first-aid services. The balance was to paid directly from the local volunteer squad’s borough-funded budget of $25,000.
The November decision was met with disdain from a couple of residents attending the council meeting including volunteer squad member Erini Papafilipakis. However, repeated calls since then to squad President Barbara Bickel and member Nancy Boguszewski have not been returned.
Mr. Wallis told the council at its Dec. 19 meeting that St. Francis was committed to Hightstown and hoped to continue its work in the borough. On Wednesday he said he was hopeful that St. Francis’ yearlong commitment to the borough would be recognized and rewarded with a 2006 contract.
"When we were first approached, Hightstown was in need of service," he said. "As St. Francis is devoted to delivering medical service regardless of one’s ability to pay, we made the decision to service the town. We did it (free of charge) for almost a year. We made our investment in the town … and we hope they understand our commitment to the town. But we can’t afford to keep doing it for free."
Mr. Wallis said the cost of staffing an ambulance service 24 hours a day for a year is about $300,000," and due to the low volume of calls in Hightstown, the company was only able to recoup $40,000 to $50,000 in billable ambulance costs in 2005. Even if St. Francis were to be awarded the contract, Mr. Wallis expected to operate at a loss, though not nearly so steep of one as they incurred in 2005.
Jeff Behm, vice president of operations for MONOC, also a nonprofit company, said Wednesday that he was unaware of council’s pending decision. He said his company had been in talks with borough officials as recently as last week, but he offered no speculation as to whether his company would be awarded the contract. [vmo: can be cut for space: ]Mr. Behm also said that despite its contracts with local municipalities, including East Windsor, MONOC works to increase volunteer ranks. One reason, he said, is that advanced life support units don’t receive adequate funding from Medicare.
[vmo: can be cut for space: ]"We work with them (volunteers) and can use our large resources to promote the first-aid squad (local volunteers) in the general public," he said
Mr. Behm could not be reached Thursday to comment on council’s apparent choice of MONOC.
Curtis Crowell, who has served as an EMS volunteer in Hightstown and is on the Borough Council’s advisory committee on the issue, said some degree of contracted EMS assistance is needed especially because of the prevalence of two working adults in a given household. And though he offered no preference as to which company would be awarded those responsibilities, he said that working with St. Francis had been a positive experience.

