Gloucester County Freeholders Expanding Shared Emergency Services

In a continued push for shared services, the Gloucester County freeholders added another Atlantic County town Wednesday night to the roster of towns where Gloucester County is now providing 911 response and fire and EMS dispatch services.

The freeholders voted to include Folsom in those services, after adding Buena Vista Township on that list two weeks ago.

And they’re not done yet.

“We’re currently looking into two additional communities in Atlantic County that may come on board with this,” freeholder Giuseppe Chila said.

Though Folsom and Buena Vista Township are large, in terms of square mileage, Chila said their call volume is low, and the addition of those two towns will have a negligible effect on the county’s ability to provide the same level of service to all the towns currently served under the county’s emergency dispatch system.

“We’re guaranteed to maintain current level of service,” Chila said.

Freeholder Larry Wallace brought up concerns over the potential for the addition of Folsom to cause costs to rise, but Chila said any additional costs–such as computer mapping for the dispatch system–would fall to Folsom, and there shouldn’t be any increased costs for emergency dispatch personnel, due to the low call volume from Folsom.

The deals with Folsom and Buena Vista Township will bring in a total of $74,000 annually for Gloucester County, and were both effective on May 1.

And inter-county shared services weren’t the sole focus–the freeholders also added Elk Township to the county-wide EMS system, of which West Deptford is a part, and approved a number of contracts for the county’s 911 substation in Clarksboro.

Freeholder Heather Simmons said that by converting the old juvenile detention center at the Shady Lane complex, the county’s saving about $500,000.

Chila praised the addition of Elk Township to the county’s regionalized EMS program.

“It’s great for the county, because we don’t have to increase any staffing...and it’s great for the residents of Elk Township,” he said.

The ultimate goal is to get all of Gloucester County’s towns to share EMS services, Freeholder Director Robert Damminger said, though he thinks there may be a few holdouts.

“We’re not going to force anybody,” he said, adding that the offer’s been extended to all municipalities in the county.