Dutchess
County's lone volunteer ambulance corps is worried it could soon be history
after operating for more than 60 years.
The
Beacon Volunteer Ambulance Corps answered 2,700 calls in 2020 alone. However,
Mayor Lee Kyriacou’s proposed 2022 operating budget includes $200,000 for an
outside agency to provide 24/7 ambulance services to address volunteer service
difficulties and heavily relying on other communities to help respond.
"I
don't know if the city has taken into account that if they go with the lowest
bidder, and they knock out an organization that has already been supplying the
service. They're not solving the problem, they're just going to make it
worse," says Antony Tseng, of the volunteer corps.
With
eight paid staff members and 30 volunteers, the nonprofit ambulance corps
acknowledges the challenges they've had responding, saying personnel shortages
impede their efforts when too many calls come in at the same time.
They
think an outside agency should supplement their calls.
"If
they bring in one ambulance, which is what the initial plan was and we can't
stay in business, the problem stays exactly the same,” says Andrew Diluvio,
president and CEO of the ambulance corps. “When that one ambulance goes out on
a call, what's going to happen to the next call? Where's that ambulance going
to come?"
News
12 reached out to the City of Beacon for comment.