Unit halted operations in July over worries about mounting debt
By Joe Nixon
Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
The Forks Township Emergency Squad, which suspended operations in July amid financial problems, will apply for a state license to restart as a basic life support organization, the president of the squad’s new board of directors said last week.
Board President William Keifer Jr. on Nov. 22 said the Eastern Pennsylvania EMS Council, an organization that must perform required inspections and certify to the state Department of Health that the squad meets standards, has given the Forks group the go-ahead to apply.
Everitt F. Binns, executive director of the EMS council, said his organization met with Forks volunteers on several occasions and even brought in an ambulance service official from another county to help guide the Forks organization’s attempt to get back on its feet.
“We will have a couple of contingencies on that recommendation — one being, we will monitor their activities to make sure they don’t get back into the same problems they had before,” Binns said.
There is no time frame for the application process or getting back into business, said Keifer, who added that there are still things that need to be done. He said the squad is working on refinancing its current debt and to ensure it has enough start-up money. He also said the group has hired a collection company to go after money owed to the squad and also is looking into hiring a billing company.
The Forks squad provided both basic and advanced life support service to the township and Stockertown. Suburban EMS of Palmer Township now fills that role.
“Suburban’s been doing a tremendous job,” Binns said. "[The Forks squad has] to work things out with Suburban because [the township is] going to need an ALS [advanced life support unit].”
Binns said starting again as a basic life support unit is where Forks “needs to be” right now. Keifer said Forks may eventually try again for advanced status, but will start out slowly.
“We don’t feel we have enough in place at this point to get us open as an ALS,” Keifer said.
Keifer was part of a group of members that organized to try to get the squad operating again. He said part of the reorganization will involve restructuring the board to make it an independent “watchdog” group. He also said the Forks squad was “ready to go” in terms of equipment and said a joint subscription drive with Suburban is going well.
Forks squad representatives in late August told township supervisors there was about $278,000 in debt, most of it long-term. At that time, Keifer also said there were more than $700,000 in outstanding billings from the past year, but said it was likely only about 15 percent of that would be collected.
An investigation is continuing into what police have called the “handling of financial matters in the previous administration of the squad.”
Township supervisors said in August they would back the return of the Forks squad if it were recommended by the EMS council.
Binns said emergency medical services is not the volunteer effort it used to be. He credited the work of the Forks volunteers.
“I think Forks is a great example of the fact that it is a business and you have to run it like a business,” he said. “I think they found that out.”