Supervisors OK $125K loan for ambulance squad

LOWER MAhEFIELD –The board of supervisors has approved a $125,000 loan to the Yardley-Makefield Emergency Unit (YMEU) to help the unit meet payroll this year.

“The loan is interestfree unless the YMEU defaults by not paying the money back by the end of 2013, at which time interest will accrue thereafter,” said township solicitor geff Garton.

The squad is facing a $125,000 shortfall in its budget this year and had asked the township to consider a loan.

The approval comes at the same time that the YMEU asked for an increase in millage for the ambulance tax.

Dennis Wallace, a deputy chief with the YMEU, said the group is appreciative of the loan.

“We are very thankful to the township for their willingness to loan us the $125,000 and contribute more than .25 mills that they have been contributing for years to help us out,” Wallace said.

The YMEU had asked the supervisors for $125,000 and a tax increase of .60 mills. The township responded by including a .35 millage increase in its 2013 preliminary budget dedicated to the YMEU.

In exchange for the millage increase, the rescue squad must periodically report to the township the list of expenditures that are made with this loan.

“As we move forward with the rescue squad, I see this as a more complicated issue than it appeared to be at first,” said supervisors chairman Pete Stainthorpe. “We need to approve this loan to get them through this year.”

He said further discussion is needed “providing real incentives to this rescue squad and their board to find additional savings and revenues and to look hard at everything.”

Stainthorpe added, “It is important we keep them afloat but I think we’re going to have to put a fairly short leash on this.”

sice chairman Dan McLaughlin said he would “regrettably” vote to approve the loan.

“I do not appreciate receiving the budget for 2013 at 5 o’clock this afternoon,” he said. “I haven’t had time to look at it. I want to go on record that I am very hesitant and very, very disappointed in how this was brought to the board at the last second in November and pushed us into a corner of making decisions about lending taxpayer money without us being fully informed and the ability to digest the information that’s given to us.”

McLaughlin agreed with Stainthorpe that there will be discussion “at length in public.”

He said there will be “hard questions” asked from the board to the management of the YMEU.

Deputy chief Dennis Wallace reiterated that the $125,000 is to get the YMEU through 2012. He said if the board approves the proposed .35 millage increase, the YMEU will have an additional $1T4,000 for 2013.

Wallace said that the YMEU leadership plans to: review all expenses to see the areas that can be streamlined without affecting public safety; maintain a high level of supervisory oversight to ensure high ethical standards and practices; to consider reorganizing shifts, having deputy chief cover more of the shifts; and reduce the amount of paid time-off employees receive.

Wallace said the YMEU has taken action to ad- dress the situation.

“We have frozen all salaries, spending and capital purchases going forward,” he said. “We hired a new billing company that will hopefully do a good job collecting all the money that is out there from our treatment of patients.”

The YMEU is conducting a subscription drive for $65 per family.

“We are hoping that a lot of our residents take advantage of this program,” Wallace said. “It will help reduce the out-of-pocket cost to residents needing emergency service and at the same time help us.”

Income/revenue for the YMEU by year-end 2012 will probably be $T39,000 and expenses will be $941,000, according to Wallace.

Wallace said the anticipated revenue for 2013 “hopefully will be $550,000 or more.”

As far as expenditures in 2013, Wallace said they will decrease from 2012 based on the proposed cuts. “It is hard to determine the exact amount of these savings at this time,” he said.