More Than 10,000
Copies Distributed Weekly and Now Direct Mailed to Over 2,250 Homes in LeisureTowne and 195 Homes in Hampton Lakes www.pinebarrenstribune.com
Vol. 4 – No. 26 ♦
@PineBarrensNews
Facebook.com/PineBarrensTribune
The News Leader of the Pines
♦
To Advertise Call: 609-801-2392
FR EE
March 7, 2020 – March 13, 2020
AMBULANCE CHASTENING
Tabernacle Schools to Lose Even More Aid Than Expected from Funding Law Governor Under Pressure Proposes Stabilization Aid for Hardest Hit Districts, But District Is Ineligible By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer
Photo By Douglas D. Melegari
The Indian Mills Volunteer Fire Company / Shamong Emergency Medical Services building.
Shamong’s EMS Squad Is the Latest Such Volunteer Organization to Face the Prospect of Heavy Fines for Not Following Every Rule By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer
SHAMONG—A shortage of volunteer e me rge ncy me d ical t e ch n icia n s i n Shamong Township could soon become a very expensive proposition for the Indian Mills Volunteer Fire Company/Shamong Emergency Medical Services (EMS) should the state agency that governs such operations prevail in its announced intent to impose a fine of $108,000 on the local EMS squad for alleged violations of state rules. After a certif ied letter to that effect, dated Feb. 19, was sent by the New Jersey Department of Health’s Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) to Chief of Shamong EMS Operations Dave Taylor, Deputy Chief of EMS Operations Joe Everman, speaking on his behalf, told the Pine Barrens Tribune that the local squad was taken aback by the letter and planned to challenge the proposed penalty assessment, which it was given 30 days to do. Republican Mayor Michael S. Di Croce, also a local attorney, when contacted by this this newspaper, called the proposed fine “outrageous” and said that he had already volunteered his services on a pro bono basis to the Shamong EMS, and planned to discuss the matter with an emissary for Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in a meeting he had already scheduled for March 11. “I am shocked and surprised that they would send out a violation notice of this type with a large fine for what I consider
to be alleged technical violations,” the mayor declared. The violations to which he referred were spelled out in the letter signed by Chrisopher Neuwirth, the assistant commissioner for the Division of Public Health Infrastructure, Laboratories and Emergency Preparedness (PHILEP), which oversees the division. Neuwirth noted in the letter that the action had come about in response to the OEMS having “received an anonymous complaint that Indian Mills Volunteer Fire Company/ Shamong EMS was operating unlicensed vehicles when providing 911 emergency medical care to the residents of Shamong and its contiguous area.” The letter further states that based upon an OEMS investigation of the complaint, it “f inds that Shamong violated the department’s administrative rules ... by utilizing unlicensed vehicles for Basic Life Support (BLS) services, and ... by staffing ambulances with only one EMT, rather than the required two.” The letter said that as a result, Indian Mills Volunteer Fire Company/ Shamong EMS was being assessed a penalty of $1,000 for each of the 72 occurrences (in which) “Vehicle #2893” was utilized for patient calls “without obtaining proper vehicle licensure prior to use” and another $36,000 for “each of the 36 occurrences when it failed to staff its ambulances with at least two EMTs.” Ac c o r d i n g t o t h e le t t e r, OE M S commenced an audit of the Shamong EMS
squad last Oct. 7, which included reviews of its employee roster, credentials, insurance and standard operating procedures. “At this time, investigators advised Shamong that it was not permitted to operate any unlicensed vehicles as a licensed provider with the New Jersey Department of Health,” the letter said. Calls made by this newspaper to both OEMS, under whose letterhead the notice was written, and the New Jersey Department of Health, under whose jurisdiction the state EMS agency falls, failed to elicit more than a perfunctory explanation of why the Shamong EMS was being fined for its practices. Everman claimed Shamong EMS had immediately halted those supposed violations in October at the state agency’s request by having some of its 911 calls relegated to squads from neighboring townships under a “mutual aid” arrangement. When asked for a response to Everman’s complaint about a fine being levied nearly five months after his unit had immediately complied with an OEMS order to discontinue engaging in allegedly u nauthor ized procedures, New Jersey Department of Health Communications Off icer Dawn Thomas replied, “An investigation followed the audit” and that such investigations “take time as they require going through many records.” See AMBULANCE/ Page 4
TABERNACLE—The Tabernacle Township School District, considered by Interim Superintendent Thomas P. Christensen to be the area’s “microcosm of the school funding cuts” resulting from Bill S-2 signed into law by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy in 2018 modifying the state’s school funding formula, received word on Feb. 27 that the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) plans to reduce its state aid for the 2020-21 school year by $605,127, or nearly $100,000 more than what was previously indicated. Christensen, in an interview with this newspaper on Feb. 28, just one-day after school aid numbers for the 2020-21 school year were released by the state for each New Jersey school district, said that a NJDOE software system that school districts use to determine aid adjustments had previously projected that the Tabernacle district would lose $481,615 in state aid for the 2020-21 school year. As was explained at a previous Tabernacle Board of Education meeting by former superintendent Glenn Robbins, the state released aid numbers last spring, only to further reduce funding to the Tabernacle district in July after enacting the Legislature-approved state budget, or right before the 2019-20 year began, prompting the need for an emergency school board meeting. Board Secretary and district Business Ad minist rator Jessica L. DeWysockie announced last month that she was budgeting for up to a $520,000 school aid reduction as a result of last year’s events (about a $39,000 cushion), but clearly had not anticipated a cut of about $124,000 more than what the system showed—and all of this occurring before July when another last-minute additional cut could occur. “We were prepared for up to a $520,000 decrease in state aid,” said Christensen in the Feb. 28 interview with this newspaper. “A $605,000 decrease in state aid is what we got.” Murphy’s office, in a statement provided to this newspaper last week, contended that Bill S2 was designed to “address inequities” that resulted from “the multiple years of overfunding some districts, while failing to See FUNDING/ Page 5
INDEX Are We There Yet?........ 7
Here’s My Card............ 12
Opinion........................ 10
Dear Pharmacist............ 8
Leo the Lion Challenge...7
Pine Knots Column........ 6
Dental Column............... 8
Local News.................... 2
Senior Living................ S1
Games..........................11
Marketplace................. 15
Worship Guide............... 9
****ECRWSS**** LOCAL POSTAL CUSTOMER
Vincentown, NJ Permit 190
PAID Presorted Standard US Postage