Fairfax Provides Rescue Squad With $ To Pay Squad

Fairfax provides volunteer rescue squad with money to pay staff

By Jill Fahy
Free Press Staff Writer

FAIRFAX -- A $56,160 donation from the town of Fairfax aims to relieve pressure on the Fairfax Rescue squad, which has suffered from a dwindling volunteer base.

"This is not to create employment for people," Fairfax Rescue President Michael Spaulding told residents Saturday during town meeting at BFA-Fairfax elementary school. "We're just trying to fill holes."

After a lengthy discussion, Fairfax residents voted for the town to allocate the money, which will provide for full-time coverage by a staff that is hired to work per-diem shifts. A maximum of five, two-person shifts would be required every week to augment the squad's volunteer staff, which Spaulding said is too small to cover the needed shifts.

"We're only capable of manning our equipment 70 percent of the time," he said of the squad's volunteers who work 12-hour shifts every week.

Although more than 20 people are listed on the volunteer squad's roster, most, Spaulding said, are not adequately trained to handle advanced life support calls.

The struggle of the volunteer ambulance crew is a symptom of Fairfax's growing pains. The Franklin County community has absorbed much of the overflow of Chittenden County, its population growing 51 percent from 1990 to 2000, to nearly 4,000.

With the growing numbers has come a changed demographic: Many of the new arrivals are commuters who leave town all day to work elsewhere.

Traditionally, Fairfax Rescue makes a nominal yearly request to the taxpayers for funding to cover what Spaulding said was "a relatively small percentage of the service's operating costs." The rest of the operating costs are generated through ambulance billing and fund raising.

In the past, whenever the Fairfax squad was unable to answer a call, Amcare Ambulance Service from St. Albans would respond, but that dependence on outside help has grown because of the volunteer shortage.

"There are 10 shifts per month we can't cover, and some are on weekdays," Spaulding said.

With the town's contribution, the total cost of creating a paid staff will be $74,880.

If residents had voted against going to a paid service, they could have opted to supplement the volunteer staff by subcontracting for one year with Amcare for $18,000.

With the town's contribution, the full-time paid coverage will cost the individual taxpayer $19 per year, a price that is well worth the timely service it would provide, Fairfax resident Henry Raymond said.

Raymond asked a question that drew nods of agreement and laughs from many in the crowd: "For my best chance of survival ... for me to be standing here next year, how do I vote?"

Fairfax isn't unique in its decision to hire a paid staff. The Essex, Charlotte and Colchester volunteer squads have coped with their own volunteer shortages by hiring people to work per-diem shifts.

Now that the funding request has been approved, Spaulding said, the squad will advertise for a per-diem staff. The goal, he said, is to build volunteer numbers back up so paid staff won't be needed.

"It is a temporary fix, no question about it," Fairfax Selectboard member Jeff Blake said of the town's donation. "They need volunteers to put the time in."
Contact Jill Fahy at 660-1898 or jfahy@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com