Mullica Chief Says Blog, Politics Made EMT's Quit
From the Atlantic City Press Published: Wednesday, December 17, 2008
By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL Staff Writer, 609-272-7227
MULLICA TOWNSHIP - The actions of top township Democrats pushed the local volunteer ambulance corps toward disbanding, its chief said Tuesday night, but "there was some posting on the blog page that really triggered our decision."
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The Township Committee granted Gary Franklin the podium for about 30 minutes early in its public meeting. Franklin wanted to explain why the squad dissolved and turned over its emergency-response beat to Hammonton's squad, using most of its remaining money to pay for six months of such coverage.
The squad wanted a better equipped home than its bay at the township garage, and the last five years of such requests weren't successful, Franklin said. Members also felt slighted by the township's consideration of sharing emergency services with another municipality, Franklin said.
"We made it clear, we didn't want to be part of the shared services," Franklin said. "You don't want us."
Committee members interjected only a handful of words while Franklin talked. Afterward, as they reluctantly voted to accept the squad's resignation, members seemed almost as reluctant to respond to Franklin's criticism.
"I don't want to get in an argument with you," Mayor William Kennedy told Franklin. Each man had in recent years commissioned a study of how best to provide ambulance service, with Franklin's study finding volunteer service was better and Kennedy's study finding Mullica should contract with Hammonton, Franklin said.
Kennedy did address the township's aborted discussion of merging the squad with Egg Harbor City's: "Egg Harbor came to us, we didn't go to Egg Harbor. Anyway, that's done with."
Bernard Graebener - like Kennedy, a Democrat - objected to Franklin characterizing him as opposed to giving the squad a new property. Graebener had only wondered whether the proposed site was big enough and in a convenient enough location, he said. Franklin replied that they recalled the conversation differently.
Republicans Kathy Chasey and Janet Forman thanked the squad for its eight years of service.
"I realize what a personal toll this has taken on all of you," Chasey said. "The governing body did not do much to support you, and I realize that."
Republicans controlled the committee from 2004 through 2007, then Democrats took a 3-to-2 majority this year. Franklin, a registered Republican, criticized the Democrats on Tuesday night but spared the Republicans, and after the meeting he explained why.
"As much as the Republicans had controlled the committee before, Larry Angel was very good at driving a wedge ... which would actually divide the Republican board," Franklin said.
Angel, who died in May, was a longtime critic of Mullica's government, and he was the former proprietor of the "blog page" to which Franklin referred in his comments to the committee. The site now is titled "Gadfly - In Memory of Larry Angel," anonymously operated by someone with access to Angel's password.
Site comments critical of the squad made members wonder if they were "throwing good time after bad," Franklin said.
"You go on the Web pages, and there's all these EMS gurus," Franklin said. "So Larry's divisive nature carries forth."
E-mail Eric Scott Campbell: mailto:ECampbell@pressofac.com
