Express Sessions: East End Emergency Services Providers See A Challenging Future

Emergency service representatives, speaking at an Express Sessions discussion on Thursday, March 10, agreed that the need for paid help to supplement volunteers, especially for ambulance services, was already a reality here.

But they held out hope that volunteerism, long the backbone of local fire departments and ambulance companies, would continue to play a major role in providing those services into the future.

That pipeline of volunteers could be kept flowing, they said, by attracting more young people, reaching out to the broader community — whether it be a growing Latino population or recent arrivals from New York City who moved east to escape the coronavirus — and, most importantly, providing more affordable housing to help EMS volunteers stay in their home communities.

The event, which posed the broad question “Are paid ambulance and fire departments inevitable?” was held at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor.

Serving on the panel were Ryan Murphy, Southampton Town’s code compliance and emergency management administer; East Hampton Fire Chief Gerard Turza; Sag Harbor Village Trustee and former Fire Chief Tom Gardella; Missy Hesler, the president of the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps; and Ian King, the district EMS supervisor for the Southampton Volunteer Ambulance.

Express News Group Executive Editor Joseph P. Shaw moderated the discussion.

Gardella said asking volunteers about the future of volunteerism was missing the point. “That’s not really a question you should be asking us. We’ve already committed to it,” he said. “The question is really to the community. Are they committed to this? It doesn’t matter how much money you make, if you are a man or a woman, or whatever ethnic background you are from. If you are willing to commit to do the job, to volunteer, that’s all that’s needed.”

But Gardella added that it is not a light load to carry.

To become an emergency medical technician requires about 200 hours of training, including a training stint at a local hospital; being a firefighter requires about 130 hours of basic training, he said. Additional time is required for training with the department and mandatory meetings.

Then there are those pesky pagers that rouse volunteers from a sound sleep, with no option of hitting the snooze button.

“The spirit of volunteerism is still alive and strong,” said Turza. “We see it every day.”

But, he added, the difficulties of both earning a living and finding an affordable place to live on the East End make it hard for fire departments and ambulance corps to retain volunteers.

East Hampton has 120 members — about 75 fewer than a full roster, Turza said, noting that this year he had already lost four longtime members of the department to retirement.

While young people are stepping up, housing is a major issue, he said. “Where are they living? They are living with Mom and Dad,” he said. “That has a shelf life. They are stepping forward, which is tremendous, but how long can we sustain it?”

King said paid paramedics and EMTs first began to be hired about 20 years ago, and today most ambulance services across Long Island rely on them to some extent. But, he added, volunteers still play a major role. “We have a lot of retired members who show up to drive, and we have a lot of college kids” who chip in during the summer when call volume is highest, he said.

In Sag Harbor, a paid paramedic and EMT are on duty during the day from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to make sure there is a crew while volunteers are typically at work. “Sag Harbor is the only corps without 24-hour [coverage],” Hesler said, noting that the corps relies on squads of volunteers to cover the night shift.

But she added that even someone who volunteers as a driver is valuable. “We can’t get to the calls if we don’t have a driver,” she said.

“Staffing is something that is probably on the radar and of concern to just about everybody,” said Ryan. “We have a great volunteer base, and we have very dedicated people in the community. But as time goes on, they age out of the system.”

Ryan said paid first responders were definitely needed to help out, but “I would flip to the other side of that and recognize the other option is unpaid professionals,” he said, adding that the problem was not just a local one. “This is countywide. This is nationwide,” he said.” As an example, he cited Pennsylvania, which had about 300,000 volunteers in 1970. Today, it only has 38,000.

Matt Zukosky, who trains emergency service responders, offered a sobering thought.

“We’re having a shortage of volunteers, but we are also at the precipice of a shortage of career staff,” he said. Plus, he added that the largest volunteer force in the world is found in Suffolk and Nassau counties — with Australia the second largest.

“It is a very big onion with a lot of layers,” he said of providing emergency services. “I think it is important that we retain everybody, because ultimately it is our families and our community that is going to need the help.”

Turza said a pension program, college tuition aid, property tax reductions, and other measures have helped some volunteers remain in place, but he said housing was the single biggest issue.

East Hampton had success when it partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build a house that was set aside for first responders. The couple who live there now are both volunteers, he said.

Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni and East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys attended the event, and said the Peconic Region Community Housing Act would allow their towns to put referendums on the ballot this year to establish a half-percent transfer tax to fund affordable housing projects. They urged voters to support the measure.

“You will have the opportunity to vote for a real funding scheme in the town for affordable housing,” Schiavoni said.

Lys said affordable housing went hand in hand with volunteerism. “This is a moment in time where we can pull back our communities,” he said. “The fabric of our communities is our volunteerism.” And he said approving that referendum would be the first step moving forward.

Southampton Town’s chief fire marshal, John Rankin, who is also the chief of the Eastport Fire Department, was in attendance and said he had been a volunteer for 46 years. He said he was lucky because he was able to buy his house from his mother.

John Neely of Westhampton Beach also urged a stronger effort to promote affordable housing for volunteers.

John Emptage and Britton Bistrian of Amagansett, who are both volunteers with their department, said outreach was key, with Emptage saying the juniors program that brings high school students into the fold is a valuable tool.

Bistrian pointed to the formation this year of an East End first responders hockey team as another way to spread the word about volunteerism.

Alex Verdugo, a member of the East Hampton Fire Department, said another way would be to reach out to more Latinos like himself. Verdugo said many Latinos do not join the department because they do not have the tradition of volunteering for emergency service. “We have to do more to invite the people who are not from here, who don’t come from three generations of firefighters or EMTs,” he said.

Turza agreed that tradition played a big role. “It becomes a family business, so to speak,” he said.

And Ryan said the sense of community and belonging were important. “If volunteers stop feeling like they are part of something that is when you are going to start losing them,” he said.