By Alex Zdan
The Times of Trenton
TRENTON, N.J. — The city’s ambulance service has completed moving its operations to the Trenton Fire Department’s headquarters and sold its former building as part of an effort to cut costs.
Trenton Emergency Medical Service (TEMS) began operating out of the offices of the Perry Street fire house around Aug. 1, Battalion Chief Peter Fiabane said, a transition that went off without a hitch.
“It’s running smoothly and it’s doing well,” Fiabane said.
Officials hope the move will also do well for the city, which could save as much as $10,000 a month with the two agencies in one place, Business Administrator Dennis Gonzalez said.
“The city has provided in the past to TEMS substantial amounts of money for services,” Gonzalez said.
TEMS is a nonprofit operated by a board of directors, which includes representatives from the city and Trenton’s two hospitals.
The city also contributes money that makes up a portion of the TEMS budget.
Contributions last year were $100,000 in addition to in-kind services such as gasoline, Gonzalez said, and should be about the same amount for this year.
In 2006, after a nomadic 25-year period that saw TEMS operating out of firehouses, a church and a hospital, the agency purchased a building of its own at the corner of Perry Street and Southard Street.
The $440,000 structure was intended to be the agency’s permanent headquarters.
“That, quite frankly, did not turn out to be a very good move,” Gonzalez said.
The building needed repairs and renovation, some of which were undertaken by TEMS employees themselves.
And the building’s floors could not support the weight of vehicles, Gonzalez said, meaning ambulances had to be parked outside instead of garaged inside.
“That defeated the purpose of having TEMS at one location,” he said.
Last September, TEMS Director Ralph Gumbert and interim Fire Director Hank Gliottone announced the move to fire headquarters, citing the city’s budget crunch.
“We’re feeling the pinch like everyone else is,” Gumbert said at the time.
Firefighters have been answering calls as first responders since last year, often handing off patient treatment to TEMS.
Now, the two agencies will share a headquarters building until a facility for TEMS can be built.
The plan, Gonzalez says, is to erect a pre-fabricated General Steel-type building behind the fire department that will house ambulances and offices and should cost in the neighborhood of $150,000.
“That will take some of the savings initially,” Gonzalez said.
“The real savings, I think, will be a year or two years down the line.”
Gumbert could not be reached for comment, and Fire Director Richard Laird declined comment.
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