PASCACK VALLEY – After discussion at its Aug. 19 meeting, the Old Tappan City Council has decided not to participate in a proposed four-city study on shared ambulance services.

However, the mayor stressed that they would continue to work towards expanding the daily availability of the local emergency services.

Following Old Tappan’s decision, three neighbors – Hillsdale, River Vale and the Township of Washington – will likely have to continue the joint ambulance study, albeit at a slightly higher cost per town.

The council discussed the joint ambulance study at its Aug. 19 meeting and voted 5-0 against it. Last month, Hillsdale agreed to participate in the study, and on Aug. 12, Washington and River Vale townships approved resolutions to participate in a joint feasibility study for four-town ambulance services.

Because those resolutions included Old Tappan’s participation, the cities will likely have to approve revised resolutions listing only the three participating cities, and there will be a slight cost increase.

If four cities had participated, the study cost would have been $4,350 per city. However, with three cities, the cost rose to $5,800 per city. The study, conducted by the MTP Group of Sparta, will examine the feasibility of providing shared ambulance services on a paid per diem basis for the participating cities.

Hillsdale is the only one of the three cities studied with a “combined” volunteer and paid ambulance service that operates during the day on weekdays and covers the city from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hillsdale’s combined service was created last September to address a chronic shortage of weekday and daytime volunteer paramedics. That shortage, coupled with more stringent training requirements for paramedics requiring 160 hours of training, has created a shortage of volunteer paramedics and puts public safety at risk due to longer response times, officials said.

Mayor Thomas Gallagher previously told Pascack Press that a shared ambulance service agreement with River Vale might be better for the community than merging with cities like Hillsdale, which generally receive many more emergency calls during the day than Old Tappan.

Gallagher told Pascack Press that “they (the emergency responders) are mostly covered all nights and most weekends.”

He added that the volunteer rescue team is “very active in our community” and attends all concerts in Oak Park, where they also try to recruit members.

Volunteers also help cover community events such as safety nights, fire prevention week and other local activities.

Gallagher noted that any future merger of emergency services, possibly with River Vale, would likely continue to be “a major budget item that would need to be considered”.

He also mentioned that some members of the rescue corps had spoken to the council over the past year about recruitment opportunities and possible increased coverage through a nearby hospital’s emergency medical services or the county’s ambulance fleet.

Gallagher praised the local ambulance service as great and a “mainstay of our community” because it has successfully provided emergency ambulance services from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. most weekends and at community events for nearly a century.

He said the volunteer ambulance service raised issues, including a lack of daytime volunteers, at a council meeting on November 6.

Gallagher explained that the city council decided not to participate in the study because they were concerned that they would be “lost” in a four-city study.

He also expressed concerns about the advisory group and did not want to move toward potentially charging residents for ambulance services.

“We just felt the study wasn’t the right thing for Old Tappan,” Gallagher told Pascack Press. He said they decided not to participate but currently have “other options on the table,” including the possibility of joint or shared service with nearby River Vale.

“We want to continue the discussions with them,” he said of River Vale.

Gallagher stressed that although the emergency services are well represented at night and on weekends, ways must be found to ensure better coverage during the day as well.

He pointed out that Old Tappan’s police, fire and EMS are on the same emergency channel as River Vale, and reiterated that he is “not a fan of charging residents for EMS services,” as proposed in certain shared services agreements.

He expressed hope that Bergen County Emergency Services would take on a larger role in providing care to the county’s cities.