By Tom Coombe
Morning Call (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Forks Township will decide next week whether to reinstate its ambulance squad, which suspended operations last month amid apparent financial problems.
The township supervisors have scheduled an emergency meeting for 7 p.m. Monday. They plan to decide whether Forks Emergency Squad can return to service for township residents.
Palmer Township-based Suburban EMS has been handling those duties since July 18, when the Forks EMS shut down. At that time, township police said they were conducting an investigation that involved the Forks squad.
“We anticipate some type of action by the police against individuals who may have wronged the organization,” Judy Arnold, vice president of the emergency squad board, told the township Public Safety Committee Wednesday evening. She said she couldn’t be more specific, and township police offered no further information.
Arnold read a letter written by the board to the township, apologizing for any trouble the ambulance service may have caused the township by its interrupted service. The letter says the emergency squad has a new business plan, and can begin operating again by Sept. 11, assuming the township reinstates it next week.
Forks Emergency Squad, like many ambulance services, gets part of its revenue from subscriptions paid by residents. Typically, the service would have begun a drive to renew those subscriptions — they expire Aug. 31 -- but hasn’t because of the suspension. Arnold said those residents will be offered an extension to cover the first part of September.
Arnold said the squad has addressed any payments they were behind on with its various creditors, who have set up payment plans. The board will meet with its bankers before Monday to make sure everything is OK financially, William Keifer, the board’s president, told the committee.
Supervisors say that they will have to see the ambulance service’s financial information before making a decision. For insurance purposes, they’ll need the names of volunteers, and the number of staff members returning. The squad’s paid staff was laid off last month.
In other business, the committee explored the idea of installing lightning rods and surge protectors at township buildings, as well as purchasing a digital video recorder to serve as a backup for its security cameras. The committee will meet again Sept. 27.