On Thursday night, at the Washington Township Board of Supervisors meeting, the Eastern Berks Fire Company and Bally Ambulance provided an impressive display of the emergency equipment and personnel who tend to the health and safety of the municipality. 

            There was standing room only for the firefighters and ambulance personnel, who had to wait over three hours for the issues at the meeting to be resolved.

            Currently, Washington Township is exploring methods to fund the emergency services.  Bally Ambulance Operations Manager Michael Groff, Eastern Berks Fire Chief Mike Mutter, and the President of the Bally Ambulance Association, Matthew Bakes, attended the meeting to explain what services their organizations perform for the municipality.  Most municipalities in the area provide some form of funding for emergency services. 

            Several municipalities enacted a millage increase of .5 mill each for fire and ambulance.  That is a total of a one mill increase on real property.  Based on a formula of approximately $60 per Washington Township resident, the township provides $110,000 to the all-volunteer Eastern Berks Fire Company and approximately $65,000 to Bally Ambulance. 

            Without dedicated, reliable funding, ambulance and fire companies cannot meet their budgets or borrow money to purchase or replace equipment.  One fire truck can cost $500,000 and must be insured for $1 million dollars.  Bally Ambulance, which routinely covers nine municipalities in both Berks and Montgomery counties, operates with a thin margin. The budget for this year is $927,500.

            Thus far, it is $37,000 to the good.   It must pay its emergency personnel and their insurances.  State grants only provide $15,000 to each of the emergency services.  A fully stocked ambulance costs $300,000.  A cardiac monitor alone can cost $50,000.  Membership fees and insurance payments from people who use the service cover some, but do not in any way meet the budget costs to run Bally Ambulance. 

            The ambulance personnel train continuously and pursue education that is required to provide excellent service.  Continuing education takes time for ambulance personnel.  It was noted there is a shortage of paramedics across the state. 

            The Eastern Berks Fire Company is an all-volunteer organization that combined several other fire companies in 2011 to become a more efficient emergency service. The volunteer firefighters who own businesses and hold full-time jobs have dedicated themselves to their neighbors whether it is a fire, an accident, or even acting as fire police. 

            They are called in all kinds of weather and circumstances.  Their education, along with the ambulance personnel, is continuous and extremely time-consuming.  They give up time with their family and friends to protect their community.  Fundraising, such as barbecues and subscription fees, cannot possibly meet the costs to run a fire company. 

            For a volunteer fireman to be qualified he must spend his own time and money to travel to training sites in either Berks or Montgomery counties.  There are levels of training a firefighter must reach to perform certain duties in firefighting. 

            One fireman at the meeting noted volunteer firemen eventually will be a thing of the past.  It is expected fire companies in the future will be manned by paid personnel.  In 2011 there were 50 people who volunteered for the fire company.  Now, there are 30 who can be relied upon for a fire call.  One third of all emergency calls for fire and ambulance come from Washington Township. 
            Some residents expressed their opinion that a tax to cover emergency services is unfair because a large property is taxed at a higher rate than a small property. 

            Some lucky individuals will never need to use the emergency services.  As a result, they will never truly know how vital to a community an ambulance service or fire company can be. 

            Anyone who has ever had a severe bleed, cardiac arrest that got them prepared for heart surgery on the way to the hospital because of the expertise of ambulance personnel, anyone cut out of a trapped car, pulled from a burning building, had a basement flood, watched firemen clean up a gasoline spill that leached into a creek, or whose life was saved because of the bravery of a fireman ready to walk across the extended ladder of a fire truck atop a raging, roaring flooded creek to be rescued from the imminent danger of drowning will never count the cost of those services.

            A donation to the emergency services from a municipality can be generous or nothing at all.  It depends on the elected members of the municipality.  A dedicated form of funding for emergency services will enable the services to make some financial planning. 

           As a member of the audience noted, the emergency services personnel pay the same taxes as everyone they serve. 

            The board of supervisors tasked Solicitor Joan London with seeking alternative methods to provide secure funding for emergency services. 

            Board of Supervisors Chairman Dave Moyer explained to the audience that the supervisors will hold budget meetings on October 13 and 14 to decide how emergency services funding will be done in the future.

            In rapidly growing, formerly rural municipality's police departments are prohibitively expensive.  State police, on which most rural municipalities rely, usually are too far away to be of immediate help.  Emergency personnel, whether ambulance or fire, provide a safety net that is essential, but they must be funded to be effective.