Volunteer Concerns About Plan To Consolidate Middletown First Aid Squads And Potential Shift To Paid First Responders

I received an email recently from a Middletown First Responder, who is concerned about a plan between Township and First Aid officials, which will consolidate the town’s 5 Independent First Aid Squads (Fairview, Middletown, Port Monmouth, Leonardo and Lincroft) from 5 down to 3. This person, due to their current involvement in one of these squads, has asked me to keep their identity to myself so as not to result in any personal repercussion from the leaders of their current squad or ridicule from township officials. I assured this person that I would and I am passing on their concerns after I reached out to a few people, which might be able to shed more light onto this person’s concern.

Here’s a snippet of what was in the email I received:

“Mr. Fiore wants these 5 squads to “consolidate” down to 3 regionalize buildings operating as one entity. The issue in this is the Bayshore squads will be the ones closing. Lincroft and Fairview will stay operating as usual and Middletown, Port Monmouth, and Leonardo will merge into one squad at a central location. So now volunteers will have a longer distance to travel to their squad buildings to pick up the ambulance and also the ambulance will have a longer response time to certain Northside neighborhoods.

There are many other issues to lesser affect; such as time pride and tradition of each individual squad the oldest dating back to 1933. There are also issues that each individual squad has their own tax-exempt number and bank accounts. They all own their own buildings and vehicles.

Mr. Fiore has told the EMS department that his plan for this consolidation will be in place by the end of the year…”

After reading this, I understand the concern. After all, I happen to live on the north side of town and could be adversely affected by such a change if response time is delayed due to the location of the newly consolidated squads. Available first responders, who live close to their squads, will have to travel to the new location and may not be able to do so in a timely manner, delaying responses.

What I found after reaching out to others for some background, was indeed eye opening.

A plan for the consolidation of Middletown’s First Aid squads go back a long time; possibly as far back as the 1980’s but until recently, discussions have never advanced much past the talking stages. I also confirmed with others, the plan is indeed to consolidate the Leonardo, Middletown and Port Monmouth First Aid Squads into one unit, while leaving Fairview and Lincroft untouched. So while Tony Fiore may be pushing this, by no means was it his initial idea; Squad leadership has been thinking about this for a long time and appears to approve of it. This doesn’t seem to be the case however with rank and file volunteer members, I was told.

Many of the rank and file first aiders are longtime volunteers, with 10 or more years of service (there are some that have been on the job for over 20) that vehemently disagree with the direction the squad leadership is moving. These first aiders take great pride in their volunteerism and knowledge that they are helping the communities they live in. They don’t think this consolidation is a good idea because moral has been effected and it’s bad for the local communities that the squads service. They feel like they are being phased out by the powers that be, in favor of paid first responders. I was told that if the consolidation happens, there are some who feel that they will just walk away after already putting in their time.

So why would the Middletown First Aid Squads consolidate like this if so many of the general members disagree with the idea? That seems to be a complex question with a complex, multi-layered answer.

The main reason sighted for the consolidation was manpower. The number of EMS volunteers has been dwindling over the years and it’s been hard to cover weekday hours with volunteers.  As a result of the lack ofavailable daytime volunteers (I’ve been told that the nightshift and weekends are adequately staffed, near 98% staffed at Middletown), Middletown has contracted with Middletown Emergency Medical Service (MEMS), a, “non-profit organization formed by the five volunteer First Aid Squads of Middletown Township and will be the primary organization dispatched to respond to EMS calls during its hours of operation on weekdays….”. It should be stated that MEMS is a “paid” service (just as MONOC Paramedics); MEMS, will bill your insurance company for any services rendered while on a call, including transportation to the hospital via ambulance. Whereas, if one of the current 5 First Aid Squads respond, there is no charge I’m told.  

It’s been theorized by those I’ve reached out to, the move to MEMS was the first step in eliminating the all the volunteer members of the First Aid Squads in favor of a full time paid service, that costs the Township of Middletown nothing to support. Which would appear to be a big reason why Tony Fiore and some others, would support and push for the consolidation of the squads.

I am not sure if consolidating First Aid Squads is a good idea. It will no doubt lead to some delays in response time. And if the plan and ultimate goal is to eliminate the volunteers and replace those with a full-time, paid response service, then that opens up a whole other can of worms for the volunteers and residents alike. And I haven’t even touched on the original emailers concern regarding the assets of each Squad and what would happen to them.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on in the coming months but to avoid all this, what is really needed is for more people to volunteer and join their local First Aid Squad.