Plaudits for Springs Fire District

With the Springs Fire District commissioners’ decision to supplement its volunteer ambulance squad with professional responders, a last South Fork holdout has joined the ranks of those with paid emergency providers. This is important not only because it will help assure speedy response times but because it supports the cooperative agreement among the area’s many fire districts known as mutual aid.

A number of factors have combined to make paid E.M.S. personnel a necessity here in one form or another. These include a shortage of volunteers who have enough time during the day to become ambulance personnel, challenges to getting proper training and remaining certified, and demographic changes. The demographic factor may be key: As the baby boom generation ages, we are likely to see more frequent medical crises and increased demand. 

Then, too, the stagnation of middle-class wages has meant that in order to survive Americans these days have to spend a lot of time working — often at multiple jobs — which precludes any ability for some to become ambulance volunteers, no matter how much they may want to. Indeed, our local squads have had to cope with a steady increase in calls while their own numbers have declined. Taxpayers who will now pay for providers should do so willingly and without objection. The Springs commissioners, who had been reluctant to add paid service, deserve credit for taking this step. 

There is more yet to do for Springs. Its new program allowed the district to hire a basic emergency medical technician; it could hire someone with advanced training for only a few dollars more as other districts have done. Springs also needs a dedicated “first responder” vehicle, which would be costly once outfitted with the necessary equipment. Residents should support both.

Springs is the most densely populated hamlet in the Town of East Hampton. Every effort should be made so that its emergency medical response is second to none.