NORTH CHILLICOTHE-If you have to suffer a heart attack, step into the path of an automobile, set your clothing on fire, or in some other way require hospitalization in a hurry while you are in Chillicothe Township, an ambulance will provide service at no cost to you.
The ambulance is operated by North Chillicothe Fire Departments Ambulance Rescue Squad, which is not a part of the North Chillicothe Fire department, although the two are related. The squad was organized in 1966, when the fire department provided an old station wagon with a siren and flashing lights. Since then, there has been a continuing, working relationship between the two. The squad is made up of the department's volunteer personnel, who, as squad members, are covered by the insurance the department provides for them; the ambulance is kept in the fire department's garage, and the departments radio system alerts squad members to emergencies.
The village, however, does not pay members of the fire department for ambulance calls, nor does it have any official representation in the squad. While the squad is made up of members of the fire department, this is an historical consequence of the organizations, plus an accommodation to the practicaly necessity of having members who can be reached and on short notice through the fire department's radio system.
The other services the squad receives from the village insurance coverage and garaging of its ambulance represent a small part of operating costs. It's first outside support came from the Chillicothe Stamp Plan, a merchants' organization which paid for an ambulance cot. Other equipment, including a portable resuscitator, an oxygen tank and a two-way radio.
Membership in the squad is limited to fire department volunteers who have completed the American Standard Red Cross class in first aid and who have either completed or are enrolled in its advanced course. They are qualified to handle bleeding, splint fractures and restore breathing.
Because volunteers man the fire department, its members have regular employment and none of them are available for a call on a round-the-clock basis. Four of the 17 members on the rescue squad, however, work second and third shifts, and can answer calls during the day. As a consequence, the squad can meet an emergency any time day or night. Under a cooperative arrangement the North Chillicothe radio dispatches are handled through the Chillicothe Police Department. Each member of the rescue squad has a monitor radio in his residence and two Earl Fulton, second assistant chief, and Robert Semtner - also have on-the-job radios on the local fire freqency. Fulton is a water and sewer superintendent for the City of Chillicothe, and the truck he uses is radio equipped. Semtner is a Chillicothe sheet metal contractor, who has a monitor in his shop.
Members of the squad who receive the call go to the fire department garage where the ambulance is kept and the first three to arrive there staff it for the emergency. The driver maintains contact with the dispatcher through the two-way radio while taking the person to the hospital. The squad limits its services to emergencies, and since the nearest hospitals are Peoria, which is where the people it transports are taken. And, because it was organized to meet a time problem in getting people to hospitals it does not ordinarily answer calls south of Cedar HIlls Drive in South Rome, since an ambulance from Peoria can get there as soon as it can. And it does not provide ambulance service of a non-emergency type. People wishing this type of service would get it from a private ambulance service.
Calls continue to average about two a week. Half of these are for heart patients, and about a fourth are for other medical emergencies. The remaining fourth are for accident victims. The squad continues to provide this service without charge, depending on voluntary contributions for it financing. If the person it has transported to a hospital wishes to make a donation, it will accept it, but does not suggest this to him. Of more then 240 people it has transported, less than half have contributed to it.
Contributions to it come in various ways. The Stoeker Service Station in Rome keeps the ambulance supplied with gasoline and the Kline Service Station in Chillicothe provides it with grease jobs and oil changes. Bake sales, rummage sales, fish fries and benefit dinners provide some of its income, as does the Chillicothe Fall Festival and a number of people make cash contributions to it. Since its organization, it built up a fund of $8,000 and used the bulk of it to buy and airconditined station wagon, plastic blowup splints, a first aid kit and a fold up stretcher, so that it can transport two patients at a time.
The squad has its own organization, headed by Joe Kennington, an operating engineer at the McGrath Gravel Pit in North Chillicothe. Other officers are Glen Koch, first assistance chief, Earl Fulton, second assistant chief, Donald Wiseman and Robert Fulton, captains; Robert Semtner, drill captain; and James Ladd lieutenant. Other members LA Rudolphi, Charles Johnson, Charles Garr, Kenneth Safford, Arthur Cox, Thomas Ryan, Ronald Foster, Roger Smith, Robert Ladd, Dennis Smith and Dennis Joyce.
The squad may set a patten for similar organization in communities, which are too small to support a private ambulance but too far from one to depend on it for emergencies. The National Association of communities recently scent Carole Cooper, a research assistant, from its Washington, DC office to North Chillicothe to study the operation. In her report, on it she said, "The operation has become more than just another service of the growing community. Individual and collective gratification has evolved. The fire men have developed more pride in their work and have gained the respect of all citizens. The community as a whole has become more united through this exercise. Willingness to participate in the initial and development of such undertaking have resulted in tangible benefits as well as feeling of belonging to the community."
