With a unified goal on their minds

After a difficult year, Rescue Squad and mayor put focus on future

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

After a tumultuous year that saw strained relations and drawn-out contract negotiations between the City of Burlington and the all-volunteer Burlington Rescue Squad, both sides are expressing optimism the situation is on the mend.

And, most importantly, they said, Burlington residents continue to receive professional-level emergency medical service at a bargain price.

“There are a lot of good things coming out of this,” Rescue Squad Chief Brian Zwiebel said. “Hopefully, in the end, people will see this as a good service at a reasonable cost compared to other communities.”

Mayor Bob Miller said his goal all along has been to sustain the volunteer service.

“I’ve been so adamant that we do whatever we can do to keep rescue going with volunteers,” he said.

Miller said there is no way the city – which pays nothing for rescue service – or its taxpayers could absorb the cost of a paid on-call rescue service.

Adjusting to change

It’s been about a year now since the city’s full-time firefighters have filled the role of first responders – immediately answering rescue calls while members of the Rescue Squad respond to the station, load the rescue vehicles and then head out on the call.

The first responders begin the process of stabilizing the patient and collecting vital signs and then stand down once the Rescue Squad members arrive.

“Now it’s becoming more interactional,” Zweibel said. “(The cooperation) is constantly getting better.

“We want to work with the first responders,” he added. “We want to expand.”

Toward that end, the Rescue Squad recently created an associate member position that relaxes the on-going training requirements for people who already meet certain emergency medical training.

The goal is to encourage or retain some members who would otherwise get burned out on the additional time commitment needed.

Zweibel said the associate membership will work well for firefighters who are willing to also become Rescue Squad members.

“We want them to work with us and continue to work on patient care, rather than standing down after we arrive,” Zweibel said. “Our hope is with the associate membership they will be able to jump on the rigs with us and follow through on the entire call.”

Miller agreed. “The victim doesn’t care what department you’re with – they just want the best service,” he said.

Zweibel added, “I’m hoping once this group goes through, there will be more who will want to do (the associate member program).”

Encouraging volunteers

The greatest challenge now, both men said, is sustaining the ranks of the Rescue Squad in a society that no longer encourages or rewards volunteer service at the level it did in the past.

People don’t have to look far for examples of where a dwindling number of volunteers and a lack of community support have destroyed volunteer rescue service.

The City of Delavan in recent years was forced to abandon its volunteer rescue service in favor of a contracted service. In the Antioch, Ill., area officials are desperately seeking solutions after voters turned down of referendum to fund emergency medical services. In the meantime the government leaders there have been forced to raid municipal budgets – putting other projects and services on hold – to come up with the money need to sustain rescue services.

Taxpayers here pay nothing for their service thanks to the Burlington Rescue Squad, which has been fully self-sufficient for about 10 years. Prior to that operations were subsidized when needed by the Burlington Rotary Club, the chartering organization for the squad.

Community support

That means the biggest threat to the future of Burlington’s service is a dwindling number of volunteers.

Zweibel said he understands it’s difficult for employers to let their employees leave work – sometimes two or three times in the same day – to answer rescue calls.

But, he said, people have to realize that emergency medical service is a vital community need that comes with sacrifice.

“It would be nice to see local businesses become (more) involved again,” Zweibel said.

The Burlington Rescue Squad currently has 14 full-fledged members, five drivers and one associate member. But the number of available members dwindles during regular working hours.

In 2014 the Rescue Squad answered 1,168 calls, which comes to an average of more than three calls per day. Time spent on calls coupled with training requirements resulted in a collective 6,000 hours of service last year for the squad members, Zweibel said.

“These are people who are putting in 40 to 50 hours per week on their own jobs and then putting in additional time on the squad,” he added. “The members give up a lot of personal time and family time and they do it because of the people they care for in this community.”

The best answer to that challenge, Zweibel said, is a growing stable of members to lighten the load.

“Who would you rather have coming to your door – a neighbor or a stranger?” he asked. “What more comfort can you have?”

Now what the community needs most, he said, are a few more neighbors to step up and join the Rescue Squad.