By Beth Velliquette
The Chapel Hill Herald
CARRBORO, N.C. — The South Orange Rescue Squad and Orange County Emergency Management Services are in talks to determine what services the rescue squad will provide for the county and what standards will be required of the squad.
Col. Frank Montes de Oca, director of the Orange County EMS, met with members of the squad’s board last week to discuss a new ordinance the county is developing for franchise agreements between the county and the volunteer organizations, such as the rescue squad and volunteer fire departments, that provide emergency services to the people in Orange County, said Syd Alexander, a member of the board of directors for the South Orange Rescue Squad.
“We thought it would be a good idea to sit down and talk to them about the service they deliver and how they deliver it,” Oca de Montes said.
The South Orange Rescue Squad, which is located on Roberson Street in Carrboro, is a separate organization from the Orange County Rescue Squad in Hillsborough. Montes de Oca put the Hillsborough squad on stand down for what he said were reports of unprofessional and reckless behavior of squad members at its headquarters and at emergency scenes.
Both rescue squads, as well as the various volunteer fire departments in the county, have a number of things in common. They are volunteer organizations that own their own buildings, gear and equipment.
The South Orange Rescue Squad specializes in swift-water rescues and high angle and confined space rescues. It also owns ambulances, and it has a contract with UNC to provide emergency services at UNC football and basketball games. It also staffs area high school football games.
For example, last weekend, South Orange volunteer squad members manned the UNC alumni basketball game on Friday night at the Smith Center and the UNC-Citadel football game at Kenan Stadium the next day, Alexander said.
The county just doesn’t have enough paid employees to provide that type of service, Alexander said.
The South Orange Rescue Squad also serves as a training center for emergency medical technicians, with many of its students coming from the university and earning their certifications through squad activities, Alexander said.
Some of them have gone on to become doctors, nurses or professional paramedics who work for the county, he said.
The squad owns its own ambulances, and sometimes when the professional Orange County EMS ambulances are busy, the squad’s ambulances have been called into service.
However, the squad is not franchised by the county to provide ambulance service.
It can be confusing, sometimes, as to who provides what service because some of the county’s professional, paid employees work out of the same rescue squad buildings as the volunteers. When people see an ambulance leaving the building, it’s hard to know if it’s a rescue squad vehicle or an Orange County vehicle.
“People get confused all the time,” Alexander said.
The goal behind the talks is to prepare the rescue squad for the new franchise agreement.
“The key is to work out a better system that provides a better and more balanced system to the county,” Montes de Oca said.
When the new ordinance is written and approved by the county commissioners, which is expected sometime this fall or early winter, the various volunteer agencies will have to reapply for the franchises, Alexander said.
“We certainly intend to apply for a franchise,” Alexander said.
Copyright 2009 The Durham Herald Co.