Video: Dave Schulz spells out future of the Morris Minute Men
By Kevin Coughlin
It’s been a point of pride with the Morris Minute Men that they have remained an all-volunteer emergency medical service for 75 years. An all-volunteer service with extremely high standards.
Those standards won’t change. But the volunteer part is getting tweaked, Minute Men President Dave Schulz told the Morris Township committee on Wednesday.
“It’s getting harder and harder to find members… we do not want to be left in the dust,” Schulz said, explaining that paid staff will be used this year to plug gaps in its coverage.
The service will remain free to the Township, he said. The squad intends to start billing insurance companies, but it has no plans to use collection agencies against patients without coverage, he said.
As you can see in this video, courtesy of the Friends of Televised Access in Morris Township, Schulz has impressive numbers to share:
His 85 volunteers logged 35,000 hours last year, serving 2,900 patients on 2,600 calls. Although the donation-supported operation principally serves the Township and Morris Plains, it also responded to 150 mutual aid calls in neighboring towns.
Schulz said the Minute Men are the last squad in Morris County that still sleeps at the station house. While the state has no regulations for first aid squads, he said, the Minute Men insist on sending two certified EMTs on every call, and on submitting their vehicles for special inspections.
The Minute Men also are capable of sending out four ambulances at once. “Nobody else can do that,” Schulz said.
Eighty-seven percent of the membership approved of the hybrid staffing. Schulz emphasized that paid EMTs only will augment the roster.
“We’re not replacing volunteers,” he said.
HISTORY OF THE MORRIS MINUTE MEN
