Rio Grande Volunteer Ambulance Corps Will Likely Be Forced to Close

RIO GRANDE – A volunteer ambulance corps, which has long served Middle Township residents, likely will close after the township decided to enter a contract with a private company to take over emergency medical service.  
Inspira Medical Centers, Inc. will now provide ambulance services after entering into a two year contract worth $100,000 per year with Middle Township. There is also an option for a third year. Last year, Lower Township made the same move to take EMS private. 
Kyle Lindholm, the chief of the Rio Grande Volunteer Ambulance Corps, told the Press of Atlantic City that he found out in an email from the township that the corps’ services would no longer be needed, effective June 15. 
Lindholm reportedly said without the township contract, which had given them $40,000 a year, the volunteer corps will have to close. While town officials have said that they studied what Lower Township did and believe the contract with Inspira will lead to better service for residents and cost savings for the township, Lindholm is reportedly unconvinced. 
“I’m concerned about our residents,” Lindholm told the Press. “A lot of people are going to be affected by our closing.”
Mayor Tim Donohue told the Press that if the old system wasn’t broken, the township wouldn’t have tried to fix it, but that he felt they were running out of Band-Aids for something that was poorly cobbled together. A paid Middle Township EMS service had been supplemented by Lindholm’s volunteer crew and another crew in Court House. 
Lindholm told the Press the township reduced the number of ambulances the paid service provided, upping the pressure on the volunteer corps. He said that in 2018 they responded to 90 calls, but in 2021 it was about 300.  
Donohue told the Press that the Rio Grande volunteers did a poor job of communicating with the township and weren’t seeming interested in finding a way to keep things going. According to the Press, Middle Township Ambulance Corps reached and worked out an agreement with Inspira to provide mutual aid and will remain open.
Lindholm told the Press the Rio Grande crew had 25 active members.