Tag: Ridgewood Emergency Services

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, in regards to your post today about Ridgewood EMTs – this is an issue manufactured by the Fire Chief in a time that they have been responding to less and less fires. These issues started in 2019 when we made a presentation to Susan Knudsen, who saw the writing on the wall that the fire department is too expensive when compared to EMS. She is working to protect her son’s job on the fire department. A letter was sent to the Village Council the day after the Chief of Emergency Services was blindsided at the public budget meeting. This will not provide 100% coverage of EMS, as the Fire Department has provided no plan of who would respond to EMS calls in town or handle fire rehab if there is a working fire – the firefighters are still being assigned double-duty on fire apparatus and ambulances, which has already caused issues in the past. Also, this will not be cost savings as stated by the manager. All per diem EMT salaries combined are under $70,000 a year ($20.83 max pay per hour, not all employees at max × 13 hours a day × 5 days a week × 52 weeks a year) while the announced salary of the new firefighters would be $37,000 × 2, plus pensions, benefits, and training costs, with raises up to $110,000 a year each for these positions, making them the most expensive EMTs in the state – triple the average EMTs salary. I would be happy to provide a copy of the letter via email if you contact me with a good address to reach you.