Washington Township to Buy Ambulance
The vehicle will be used by the Fire Department, which will begin providing rescue service.
The Messenger Press, http://www.messengerpress.com
Story by: Mark Moffa
11/01/2001
WASHINGTON — The Township Committee has introduced an ordinance
that would allow it to purchase a $130,000 ambulance.
The committee might approve the ordinance, introduced last month,
at its Nov. 8 meeting.
The ordinance allows the township to borrow $123,500 for the
ambulance. A down payment of $6,500 is planned.
The ambulance will be used by the Fire Department, which will begin
providing rescue services to the township next year.
The Allentown First Aid Squad earlier this year informed the
township it will cease providing ambulance service to Washington at the end of
the year.
Left with a choice of providing its own service or contracting with
a private service such as Capital Health System, the Township Committee decided
in July against hiring a private service.
The township will provide the Fire Department with an annual
stipend of $30,000 and is purchasing an ambulance for the department.
Washington was paying Allentown $29,600 for its service.
An ambulance purchased by the township several years ago is being
leased to Allentown for $1 a year. The township will take back its ambulance and
lease it to the Fire Department for $5 a year.
Fire Commissioner Debbie Matson said the department will keep the
ambulances in the firehouse, and will have to hire eight more full-time
employees for the rescue service.
Two rescue squad members will be on duty at all times, she said.
The department has 12 paid firefighters and about a dozen
volunteers. It provides 24-hour coverage for the township with three paid
firefighters on duty at all times.
The rescue squad members will be trained emergency medical
technicians, just as the firefighters are, and will be on the same pay scale,
currently starting at $32,290, according to Ms. Matson.
As a result of the increased costs associated with the new service,
Ms. Matson predicted, township residents will see an increase in the fire tax of
about 4 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The fire tax now stands at 16
cents per $100 of property value, meaning the owner of a house assessed at the
township average of $158,000 pays $252.80 in fire taxes.
A 4-cent increase, for the owner of the same house, would mean an
increase in fire taxes of $63.20.