Mullica Township Losing its Rescue Squad
From the Atlantic City Press Published: Wednesday, December 11, 2008
By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL Staff Writer, 609-272-7227
MULLICA TOWNSHIP - Free ambulance service in this town of 6,000 will end Monday when the local volunteer rescue squad disbands. "It's just time for us all to move on," Assistant Chief Bill Scaplen said. "Nobody wants to go out of business."
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The group cited a lack of financial support from municipal officials, who said they are stunned by the decision, conveyed in a letter a week ago.
"I liked having a squad of our own, and I was hoping some day that they would take over full-time," Committeewoman Janet Forman said.
Too full of volunteers with day jobs, Mullica's squad has for five years paid Hammonton's ambulance corps to respond to calls between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Now the squad has used most of its remaining finances to extend Hammonton's coverage around the clock through June 15, Scaplen said. Chief Gary Franklin could not be reached for comment.
Unlike in Mullica, Hammonton's nonprofit squad is paid, and it bills patients. Its 2006 tax return showed $2,159,991 in revenue, $2,170,223 in expenses and a cash reserve of $663,924. The squad also began covering Somers Point this year.
Hammonton Chief Chuck Kaczmarski could not be reached by telephone to provide his squad's fee structure. In 2001, when the previous Mullica squad quit and Hammonton's was hired temporarily, the base rate was $333.
"I think they're still going to get pretty good services and response from Hammonton," Scaplen said.
Mullica Township provides the squad two ambulances, insurance, gasoline and a bay in the Public Works garage, officials said. The squad pays for maintenance and equipment, and from its $16,500 slice in Mullica's annual budget, it must send roughly $14,000 to Hammonton.
That leaves too little money to cover increasingly frequent repairs on the 20-year-old and 12-year-old ambulances, Scaplen said. Volunteers have sought newer ambulances from the government and a building with running water, but there is disagreement over how urgently and specifically those requests were made.
"I've put on my show to them with the PowerPoint presentation, showing where we are," Scaplen said. "We've been extremely patient, in my opinion. ... We're out there killing ourselves to maintain things, and it just seems like we're not getting anywhere.
The township's budget is tight, but officials knew the squad had needs. The sides had discussed the possibility of the squad renting a Moss Mill Road tract and erecting a building, Mayor William Kennedy said.
"We didn't really get into that too much," Kennedy said. Forman felt the previous discussions were casual and she was "waiting to hear a formal request." Forman said she was "devastated" and "absolutely flabbergasted" at the news.
A "dejected" Deputy Mayor Michael St. Amour wondered whether the committee could have helped more if given more notice. Since the Hammonton extension has already been reached, St. Amour said, "they had to have been discussing this internally for a matter of time."
The government must move quickly to find a new ambulance provider, St. Amour said, even though the township is covered for another six months. Preliminary merger talks with Egg Harbor City broke down earlier this year, and the city now partners with Galloway Township.
Mullica's 17 volunteers usually don't spend their shifts in the ambulance bay, instead driving there when a call comes in. Scaplen keeps a first-responder bag in his car and sometimes responds directly from his house.
The squad spent Wednesday evening cleaning up and cleaning out its makeshift home. The night before, volunteers assisted on a call out of town, then thought about what they'd be missing.
"Coming back from Atlantic City, it just hit us: We're not going to be doing this anymore," Scaplen said.
E-mail Eric Scott Campbell: ECampbell@pressofac.com
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