By Terrie Morgan-Besecker
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2007 The Times Leader
FORTY FORT, Pa. — Council’s decision to name Kingston as the borough’s ambulance provider has raised concern among some emergency service officials in both communities who say the move caught them by surprise.
Officials with the Kingston and Forty Fort ambulance and fire services said they knew the two municipalities were discussing the consolidation of services, but believed the plans had not been finalized. They were surprised to learn Forty Fort council voted on Sept. 4 to name Kingston as the first responder in lieu of the Forty Fort Ambulance Association, which has served the borough for more than 60 years.
“It’s almost like it was out of the clear blue sky. This was proposed and voted on and it was a done deal,” said Diane O’Hara, president of the Forty Fort Ambulance.
Mayor Boyd Hoats said council had no problem with the service provided by the Forty Fort Ambulance. He said council opted to go with Kingston to ensure there is 24-hour coverage by a paid crew that is available immediately, versus the volunteer crew that must be summoned out on the night shift.
Forty Fort and Kingston have paid and volunteer members, but Kingston is a larger department and has more paid staff.
Hoats said the municipalities have agreed to an 18-month trial period. They hope to make the switch by mid-October or early November.
O’Hara supports consolidating the two departments and is not questioning the quality of care provided by Kingston. But she believes council acted too quickly. Others, including Councilman Andy Tuzinski and Bob Smith, a deputy fire chief with Forty Fort, also expressed concerns.
“Nobody on the operational level knew it was going to happen. It’s just like, here it is, sprung on us,” said Smith, who has been working on the consolidation plan for years. “We’ll work with what happened, but there are going to be a lot of growing pains that would not be there if we had more time to work it out.”
Tuzinski has questioned council’s unexpected vote to name Trans-Med Ambulance Inc. of Dilley Street in Forty Fort as the secondary responder, replacing Northeast Paramedic Services of Luzerne, which served the borough for seven years. Tuzinski said there has never been any problem with the service provided by Northeast Paramedics.
Tuzinski, who voted against the changes, said he wanted Kingston to add two more paid paramedics, but that request was shot down. Kingston agreed to revisit the issue after the trial period is over.
Joseph Grimes, a member of the Kingston Ambulance board of directors, and Robert Cannon, Kingston’s fire chief, said they are confident Kingston can handle the increased workload without hiring more paid paramedics.
Cannon said the staff from the Forty Fort Fire Co. will mean an additional paid crew member on the day and evening shifts, increasing the manpower from five to six in the day, and from four to five at night. He said he believes that will be more than adequate to handle the additional call load.
While confident the plan will work, Grimes said he, too, had some reservations about how the situation was handled.
“It’s not the way we wanted to see it done. We wanted everyone to work together and it just exploded in our face here,” he said.
O’Hara said Forty Fort Ambulance will continue to provide service until the switch to Kingston is made. She’s not sure what the future holds after that since Forty Fort was its primary coverage area. She said she can’t help but feel slighted by her own council.
“We’re hurt and disappointed in the council people. Some of us are on the board 25, 30 years. ... All of a sudden it’s, you’re not needed, you’re done, without any notification,” she said.