FirsttowninpacttostudyTri-Boroambulancechallenges

Woodcliff Lake on Jan. 23 became the first of three towns to approve a resolution committing $5,000 for a consultantʼs study of the challenges facing the Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Tri-Boro neighbors Park Ridge and Montvale are expected to take up similar funding resolutions next.

TBVAC provides volunteer emergency medical service and transport for all three towns, which now plan to commit a total of $15,000 for a consultantʼs study of the corpsʼshort-term volunteer recruitment and retention issues, plus a long-term look at ways to sustain the corps and better serve the area.

Woodcliff Lake councilman Benjamin Pollack — a member of the advisory committee meeting on the corpsʼcritical needs — said the work should take about 45 days, and yield recommendations.

A couple months back, the corps sent a letter to its constituent towns outlining its problems with volunteer recruitment. Members said they seek $100,000 from each town to establish a volunteer stipend program to incentivize volunteers who dedicate 60 hours monthly. Each volunteer serving 60 hours would receive $750 per month.

The tri-town committee is considering the proposal as it works toward greenlighting a con- sultant study.

Pollack said representatives from the three towns have met regularly this year over how best to support the corps. He said the “safety of residents is paramount” and that how best to support the corps “is a complex issue with a lot of different components.”

He said all three towns agreed to bring in a consultant who has examined other volunteer emergency services. He said questions such as whether the Tri-Boro squad should remain fully volunteer, or a hybrid, are issues that the committee is considering.

He said volunteers riding on the ambulances require hundreds of hours of training and he urged residents interested in volunteering to learn more about such valuable

WOODCLIFF LAKE service.

“Rather than potentially doing a Band-Aid,” he said the committee wants to look at all the challenges affecting the corps. “No one knows now whatʼs going to solve the problems that the corps has,”including how to boost recruitment and retention.

Pollack said the committee was “not necessarily saying no” to a volunteer stipend program but rather that the committee wanted to look at the corps as a whole.

He noted recruitment problems were being experienced by volunteer ambulance corps countywide. “Weʼre doing our homework now.”

He said the three towns were starting to have conversations with assisted living and nursing facili-