Pa. Ambulance Association Stops Emergency Transports
Nov. 09--Exeter Township, PA--The Exeter Ambulance Association has ceased the emergency medical side of its operations as it works to rebuild after its grand fallout with Exeter Township over the past year.
"We're not closed," EAA President Kathy Cortellessa stressed of the organization, which prior to December had served as Exeter's primary 9-1-1 responder for four decades.
"We are no longer doing emergency medical transports," she said. "We're still available to do wheelchair transports and things like that."
After losing its status with the township, the EAA maintained a contract for routine medical transports with Penn State Health St. Joseph hospital. Cortellessa said, however, that as of October, the EAA was no longer working with St. Joseph.
Additionally, the EAA's building at 30 Fairlane Road -- listed in August at $550,000 on a local Coldwell Banker website -- has been taken off the market while a legal battle plays out in court between the association and township.
The township kicked off the proceedings against its former ambulance provider in September, filing a lawsuit in Berks County Court over $52,128 in unpaid fuel and vehicle maintenance bills.
"This goes back over a year in fuel charges," Township Manager Troy S. Bingaman said at the time. "We have our own gas pumps here, so the fire department, the ambulances, our guys, the police all use these gas pumps."
He said the township billed the association each for its portion.
"Unfortunately, I can only assume that given their financial situation, that they stopped paying those bills," he said.
Between October 2013 and June, the lawsuit alleges that EAA failed to pay $52,128, leaving the township on the hook for paying those bills.
Since then, a 1975 agreement between the then-fledgling Exeter Ambulance Association and the township has come to light, with both sides hoping it'll help their case against the other.
"The agreement states that the association agrees that when it ceases to occupy said tract of land or building, it shall immediately revert to the township," Bingaman said, referring to the EAA building near the township municipal complex, which the EAA had put up for sale.
Cortellessa claims on the other hand, though, that "part of that thing that was filed in the '70s was that the township was committed to giving us money every month. They've breached contract."
With that, the EAA filed a countersuit against the township Oct. 26.
The court filings are the latest in a year of crumbling relations between the township and the association.
In December, the supervisors designated the Exeter Fire Department as the primary 9-1-1 responder, replacing the EAA, which had served in the role since the 1970s.
The move followed months of tense discussions between the township and EAA, capped by the association's announcement earlier that month that without funding from the township, it would shutter its 9-1-1 service in 90 days. Faced with that looming deadline, the supervisors opted instead to tap the fire department, which took over in March.
In recent months, the EAA has seen the resignation of its chief, Jon Herbsleb, along with at least one board member. Cortellessa insisted, however, that the EAA has its sights on the future, though she wasn't ready to disclose those plans yet.
"What we're really trying to do is reinvent the organization," she said. "We are trying to settle as much debt as possible. We are paying. We have been able to establish a way through selling assets to pay PTO (paid time off) and unemployment out to our employees.
"We're just doing everything we can do to sell off so we don't have to foreclose on the building."
Contact Becca Y. Gregg: 610-371-5032 or bgregg@readingeagle.com.
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