by Megan Schiffres
HEATHSVILLE—The Northumberland board of supervisors last Thursday voted (4-1) to retroactively adjust the contribution structure for volunteer rescue squads.
The action came two days before a second paid medic crew was scheduled to begin service.
Under the new contribution structure, each volunteer squad will be appropriated a maximum yearly contribution of $50,000. If a crew runs 80% or more of the calls dispatched to their squad, they will receive 100% of the funding from the county. If a crew runs less than 80% of calls dispatched to their agency, the contribution from the county will be based on the percentage of calls dispatched that they actually ran.
This system for calculating the county’s contributions to volunteer emergency medical services replaced the contribution structure adopted by the board in November.
The board voted to hire a second paid crew for the county in June, after a report from the chief of emergency services showed volunteer squads in the county had failed to respond to a significant portion of 911 calls over the past two years.
The county’s contributions to the volunteer squads for the first quarter of 2019 will be retroactively adjusted to…
