After two years of uncertainty, the future of Sewickley Township Community Ambulance Service was secured Wednesday when North Huntingdon Township Rescue 8 signed a 25-year agreement to take over its operations. The agreement, approved last month by the Sewickley Township supervisors, ensures that a local ambulance base, staffed in part by Sewickley residents, will remain in Herminie. Yet officials of North Huntingdon – who subsidize Rescue 8 to the tune of $94,000 annually – are wondering what keeping the Sewickley service afloat will cost North Huntingdon’s taxpayers. ‘As an elected official, we have the right to know if any tax money from North Huntingdon is going down there,’ said Thomas Kerber Sr., chairman of the North Huntingdon commissioners. ‘We need to keep our eyes and ears on the road.’ Rescue 8 was formed in 1960; Sewickley Ambulance dates to 1972. In January 2000, with financial problems mounting for Sewickley’s service, Rescue 8 assumed its operations under a temporary agreement. Reaching a permanent arrangement proved more difficult, however, and meetings between the townships and the ambulance companies were heated, according to several sources involved in the negotiations. ‘We have been at odds about some things,’ Kerber admitted. Alberta ‘Bert’ Steban, president of Sewickley Ambulance and a charter member, called the takeover ‘one of the hardest things we ever had to do.’ ‘The important thing is, the people in the township will get the coverage,’ she said. ‘We’re still going to be there.’ Sewickley Ambulance had been an entirely volunteer operation until a few years ago, when a dwindling number of members forced the hiring of two paid staff members. ‘The payroll is what broke us,’ Steban said. Sewickley Ambulance’s total budget was about $130,000 per year, she said. The service has about 18 volunteers, down from nearly 70 a few years ago. ‘With both mom and dad working these days, they don’t have time to volunteer,’ Steban said. Rescue 8 answers about 12,000 calls per year, officials said, including many non-emergency transfers. Sewickley Ambulance handles about 700, but didn’t have the staff to operate the more profitable transfer runs, Steban said. According to officials of both ambulance services, who signed the contract at Rescue 8’s base on Jacktown Hill, the agreement deeds Sewickley’s two Dodge ambulances and all equipment to Rescue 8. In return, Rescue 8 will staff the Sewickley base with two crews capable of both basic and advanced life support services. When both crews are out on calls, a North Huntingdon Rescue 8 crew will be sent from the Jacktown Hill station to main the ambulance base in Herminie. The ambulance base in Herminie will be deeded to Sewickley Township, which will then lease it to Rescue 8 for $1 per year. While Sewickley Ambulance will retain a corporate charter and its volunteers will be able to raise money, Sandy Perlinger, executive director of Rescue 8, said all operations will be handled by the North Huntingdon service. Money collected in Sewickley will support the Sewickley service, Perlinger said. Rescue 8 believes the service can pay its own way, she said. Currently, North Huntingdon pays for insurance on Rescue 8’s equipment. A separate policy will be used for the Sewickley ambulances. ‘It is not the policy of North Huntingdon Township to insure vehicles being used in outlying townships, and we understand that and respect that,’ said John E. Bumbaugh, Rescue 8’s solicitor. Though Rescue 8 is an independent organization not controlled by North Huntingdon, the service has been willing to provide township officials with access to its records, said Jeff Miller, assistant township solicitor. Even if North Huntingdon didn’t want Rescue 8 to take over Sewickley Ambulance, ‘we couldn’t by ordinance prevent them,’ he said. It would not be to the township’s advantage, Miller added, to create an antagonistic relationship with its ambulance service. ‘They’ve been happy to provide any information we’ve been interested in,’ Miller said. ‘It’s all been consensual.’ Besides insuring Rescue 8’s ambulances and base at a cost of $34,000 per year, Kerber said North Huntingdon pays $17,940 for fuel and $18,720 for utilities, and makes an $11,000 annual cash donation. ‘We do fund them quite a bit of money,’ Kerber said. ‘We don’t want to be subsidizing anything’ in Sewickley Township. All maintenance and operation of Sewickley’s ambulances will be funded by fees collected from service provided in Sewickley, Perlinger said. Sewickley’s supervisors make an annual contribution of $5,000 to the service. Many Sewickley residents are older and on fixed incomes, said Jared Filapose, chairman of the township supervisors. Sewickley’s tax base is smaller than North Huntingdon’s and it’s difficult to provide a larger subsidy, he said. Sewickley has about 7,500 residents; North Huntingdon about 30,000. ‘North Huntingdon has more industry, more housing,’ Filapose said. ‘In Sewickley, we’re working on things like that … We need major infrastructure improvements.’ Once city water and sewerage are extended to the entire township, Sewickley will attract development, and will be in a better position to fund the ambulance service, he said. For the time being, Filapose said, the supervisors will do what they can to increase their contribution. ‘We’ll have to review it for next year’s budget,’ he said. ‘It would have to be a board decision.’ The Sewickley supervisors did their best to keep the ambulance service solvent, Steban said. ‘Our people in the township were faithful, but our township is small,’ she said. ‘They gave what they could.’

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