WEST WINDSOR — The township needs approximately $180,000 to pay for emergency medical services now that it has stopped dispatching the Twin W First Aid Squad for emergency calls.
Twin W, which had been serving the West Windsor Township community since 1972, had a deadline of March 16 to sign a new memo of understanding with the township. The deadline passed and the Township Council decided on March 23 to stop utilizing the all-volunteer squad.
In its stead, the township will hire three full-time emergency medical services employees.
Township officials have estimated the costs of the new emergency services at $180,000 plus $5,000 for uniforms.
During Monday night’s council meeting, Chief Financial Officer Joann Louth said offsetting the costs would mean using additional revenues as well as the $30,000 the township typically budgets for Twin W and $30,000 it budgets for the Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP). Additional revenues include reimbursements from insurance companies for ambulance transports, she said.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh has said the township currently provides emergency medical services with 12 staff members in its emergency services division. He has also noted that the township has two volunteer fire departments and that all police officers are trained to deal with emergencies.
In the meantime, the mayor said he would like to seek means to add a volunteer component to the township’s emergency services division.
Twin W representatives are skeptical of the mayor’s plan.
“West Windsor is quoted as wanting to have a volunteer component with some of our former members; however, per the West Windsor Fire and Emergency Services (WWFES) union contract, volunteers are not allowed to staff their crews,” said Brian Solomon, Twin W First Aid Squad president and deputy chief. “We know this because 16 times during the day in 2014 (we are the primary responders at night), we had one available member (you need two 18-year-old or older EMTs in New Jersey to respond) and WWFES had one available paid staff member on scene yet mutual aid had to be called to handle the call instead of a West Windsor ambulance.”
