Tremont Rescue 702
Tremont
Rescue 702
P.O.
Box 111
Tremont,
IL 61568
http://rescue702.com
Dear Business Leaders of
Tremont,
We want to thank you for your
very generous support during our recent fund raising drive for the new
ambulance. We received over $30,000 from
the community. The new ambulance has
been received and placed into service.
Our hardworking volunteers are very thankful for the new “up-to-date”
ambulance!
Thanks to the community’s
generous monetary donations, financial pressure is not the issue which causes
us to communicate with you once again.
Rules require that we must provide a driver and two Emergency Medical
Technicians (EMT) with each call. Our
main problem is finding volunteer EMTs for the daytime shifts. In past months, we have had to operate with
one EMT an average of 8 times a month and as often as 18 times a month. On those occasions, we have temporarily been
permitted to operate with one EMT. We
have, however, been advised recently by our governing body, the Peoria Area
Emergency Medical Service, that this will no longer be permitted after June,
2010.
We have decided that we
should communicate to the community and business leaders the options that are
available to us. Listed below are those
options in order of least to greatest complexity and cost:
1. Recruit within
the community to maintain an all-volunteer squad.
2. Partner with
Advanced Medical Transport (AMT), an ambulance service, to provide service when
we cannot staff 2 volunteer EMTs.
3. Hire EMTs to
cover the daytime shifts and staff evenings and weekends with volunteers.
4. Hire EMTs to
cover all shifts.
Tremont Rescue 702 was formed
in 1977 as a non-profit corporation and receives all of its funding through
patient billing, donations, memorials and the generous support of the Tremont
Betterment Association. While the
Tremont Fire Department generously provides the Rescue Squad with a home;
Rescue 702 is not a part of the Tremont Fire Department and does not receive
tax money. Our current sources of
revenue are sufficient to meet our operational needs, but are not sufficient to
cover the wages of paid employees.
Options 2, 3, and 4 would require a tax referendum and convert Rescue
702 into a taxing body. Option 1 is
clearly the simplest, most cost effective way to solve our problem, and the one
that Rescue 702 prefers.
In reviewing past recruitment
efforts, a group that has not been one of our primary recruiting targets are
the people working in the community. If
enough businesses are willing to provide the Rescue Squad with just one EMT, we
will be able to remain an all-volunteer squad.
In the coming weeks, a representative of Rescue 702 will visit your
business to encourage your support and to answer any questions regarding our
needs and the impact on your business should any of your employees join the
squad.
The problem we have in
staffing the Rescue Squad is not unique to Tremont. It is a problem all small communities
face. Most small communities do receive
tax money and do pay their daytime EMTs.
Tremont, however, is unique in the way it pulls together to meet
community needs. Tremont works together
every year to host the Turkey Festival in a way that no other community is able
to do. Tremont leaders worked together
on the recent Tiber Creek project.
Tremont recently held a major fund raiser to help pay the medical bills
of a resident in need. We believe our
community can work together to maintain an all-volunteer squad and avoid
additional taxation!
Sincerely,
Tremont Rescue 702 Board