As many of you know already I spent several years as an EMT for the state of New Jersey. Today I heard some sad news as to the conditions of the state of Hoboken's Emergency Medical Services. I was speaking to someone I know that volunteers for the City of Hoboken's EMS service, this person wishes to be anonymous but the conversation we had about funding for new ambulances that were destroyed by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy was devastating to my ears. I ask this person was FEMA or the City of Hoboken going to replace the damaged ambulances, the answer I got was no. The volunteers do not qualify for emergency funding by FEMA, and the city of Hoboken is too cheap help fund it's own ambulance service. Now keep in mind that the Hoboken police and fire department are paid services and fully funded by the city. Now the Emergency Medical Service for Hoboken has remained volunteer and is left to fend themselves using fund raisers to help supply the ambulance service. My question is, how does a city such as Hoboken that makes millions of dollars off of police and parking fines, taxes of local establishments, etc, leave their first line of medical defense so helpless? How can the Mayor of Hoboken Dawn Zimmer be so negligent as to not even have a budget for the city's EMS. The mayor makes over $100,000 a year, and the people that put their lives on the line on a daily basis get nothing. I don't see any fairness in this at all. Although the city of Hoboken is only one square mile, the city generates enough money to fund the mayor, police, fire department, and even parking authority. So parking authority in Hoboken is more important than their own emergency medical services. How sad is that? If anyone else thinks this is wrong please pass this message on, let's see if we can correct this horrible situation in the City of Hoboken! No more fund raisers for Hoboken EMS, create a budget!
