EAST HAMPTON, Conn. — The East Hampton Ambulance Association has been serving the community since 1953.
Deputy Chief Tom Donnelly has been a part of it for more than 20 years.
"It's hard when you've kept the organization together this long, and now you see it's gonna kind of fall apart because we just can't keep it going," Donnelly said.
The COVID-19 pandemic made an already existing struggle to get volunteers even worse and it's now reached a point where the EMTs say it's impacting response times.
"Sometimes we don't have a crew and it will go three tones, and then they have to go to mutual aid towns so that delays everything," Donnelly said.
"It could be hours. In an emergency situation, you don't have hours," said Kim Danaher, an EMT and driver.
To survive, the all-volunteer service says it may need to start paying people to join. Which is a challenge because the service is separate from the Town of East Hampton and doesn't receive any funding from it.
When the town received additional funds through the American Rescue Plan though, the ambulance service hoped that would change.
"It was like throwing us the life preserver because it was supposed to be COVID money," said Danaher.
"If they give us some money we can supplement it with ours and we'll be able to do this for another few years. Otherwise we've maybe got a year or two left," said Donnelly.
However, the town council said they decided those funds would only be used for one-time expenditures. So far, some of that money has been allocated to go towards a new roof on the middle school.
"We would absolutely not use it on any type of salary or ongoing continued expenses," said Mark Philhower, chairman of the town council.
He said, it would take a lot more to fix the problems the ambulance service is facing.
"Just to throw money at it for a short term fix would be a waste. We need true long term solutions," Philhower said.
Out of options, the ambulance service is asking for help. Putting out the call for more volunteers to keep their doors open.
"It is very rewarding and that's why we do it, we do it for the patient not for us," said Donnelly.
"We're hoping that we can get past it and that we can conquer and be there for this community," said Danaher.
If you are interested in learning more about becoming a volunteer, visit their website here.
Gaby Molina is a reporter and anchor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at gmolina@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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