Pa. Township Employees Fill Response Gap

Oct. 07--On one of Tim May's first calls as an emergency responder, a patient recognized him and said, "What are you doing here?"

Fire department volunteers told the puzzled patient, "You're lucky. You've got a township supervisor lifting you up today."

May and six other Harborcreek Township employees have been stabilizing patients, driving ambulances, fighting fires and even saving lives since April 2012. Specially trained and dispatched as the Harborcreek Township Emergency Response Team, or Team 237, they scramble to handle emergency calls during the workweek, when local fire departments are short-handed.

So far, the township employees have responded to more than 350 emergency calls.

"It's not that we're looking for something to do," said township Supervisor Joe Peck, who organized the emergency response team that was inspired by a similar Millcreek Township team. Peck, like May, responds to emergency calls. "But public safety takes priority."

Harborcreek Township employees helped save a driver whose car slid off the road and into a tree on Depot Road. They helped free a trucker from a rolled rig on Interstate 90, assisted with a water rescue at Shades Beach, and have stopped bleeding, prevented shock and protected dozens of patients from further injury.

"We've actually converted people having a heart attack," restoring natural heart rhythms, said township parks employee Don Erbin, an EMT and former Kuhl Hose Co. fire chief.

Parks coordinator Krista Jelley comforted the wife of a cardiac patient that first responders couldn't save.

"I asked her questions to keep her mind from running away. I hugged her, and I held her," Jelley said. "It was just simple things, anything I could do to be there for her."

Township responders do whatever needs to be done, Peck said. "We're basically grunts for the fire departments."

Local fire departments are grateful for the support, Fairfield Hose Co. Chief Jim Hawryliw said.

"Our volunteer numbers have dropped immensely in recent years, and every year we lose more people. And with more requirements from the state, it's harder to get volunteers trained and to retain them after they are trained."

On top of that, volunteers who are available evenings and weekends often are not available weekdays. They may work across the county or may not be allowed to leave work during the day.

"It used to be that any boss was happy to let a volunteer leave as needed. That's changed," Hawryliw said.

He and other Fairfield, Brookside and Harborcreek fire officials worked with Peck to organize, train and outfit the Harborcreek Township responders.

"Some of our gear says Fairfield, some says Brookside, some says Harborcreek," said Brian Benovic, an EMT and former Wesleyville fire chief who leads the Harborcreek Township Emergency Response Team.

Harborcreek Township spent $22,000 for additional team equipment, supplies and training. Revenues from the local services tax paid the bill. The tax also reimburses the township about $30 an hour for employee time spent on emergency calls and pays insurance, recruiting and retention costs for the three local fire departments.

"Property taxpayers pay nothing for the responder program," Peck said. "Plus, when volunteer fire departments don't have enough volunteers, you have to go to a paid fire service, and that's a huge, huge expense. This program helps stave that off."

The program also helps local fire departments financially. Township employees often provide the required "second man," an EMT or driver, on ambulance calls that provide a large chunk of the departments' revenues. The fire departments bill patients' insurance companies for the cost.

"They're losing maybe $500 to $800 each time they don't have the manpower to answer an EMS call," Peck said. "With our assistance, the fire departments might have $5,000 worth of revenues they wouldn't otherwise have had in 2012."

Peck each day notes township response team members who are on the job and available for emergency calls, including garage operations manager Wayne Boyd and road worker Tim Eliason, a Kuhl Hose volunteer. Anyone doing critical or time-sensitive work goes to the bottom of the list that Peck gives to the response team leader each day.

And each day Benovic monitors an emergency radio in the Ford Explorer that he drives as township code enforcement officer. The vehicle is also equipped with emergency lights and carries most of the response team's equipment and gear. When it's likely that township responders will be dispatched, Benovic drives back to the township building to collect them.

"We always have at least three people on a call," Benovic said.

Most Harborcreek residents are gracious when township employees aren't on the job when they want them and are on an emergency call instead. But a few grouse, township officials said.

"What's more important?" Erbin said, shrugging that off. "Saving a life. The grass will still be there to mow when I get back."

VALERIE MYERS can be reached at 878-1913 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNmyers.

Copyright 2013 - Erie Times-News, Pa.