file photo by Boyd Loving
by the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
For those of you who are not members of the Facebook Group “Ridgewood Moms & Dads with Free Speech,” you may have missed the news regarding a plan to address Village officials’ concerns about current daytime EMT coverage. These plans were revealed during a recent Village Council meeting dedicated to discussion of budget matters.
In short, the plan is to replace the per diem EMTs currently employed by Ridgewood Emergency Services with career Firefighters/EMTs assigned to the Ridgewood Fire Department. The fire department’s headcount is proposed to be increased by two (2) in order to facilitate this plan. Ambulances providing the planned coverage would be relocated from Emergency Services headquarters on Douglas Place to Ridgewood Fire Department headquarters on East Glen Avenue.
There have been several recent instances in which ambulances staffed by per diem employees did not respond promptly to emergency incidents. Village officials believe that the proposal to change from per diem employees to career employees, and a move of associated ambulances to fire headquarters, will result in a 100% ambulance response rate on initial dispatch.
