By Sunayana Prabhu
HOLMDEL – Facing a critical shortage of volunteer emergency medical technicians that left over a third of emergency calls unanswered, the township committee unanimously approved a shared services agreement with the Monmouth County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to ensure residents receive timely medical response.
During the March 10 township committee meeting, Mayor Brian Foster announced the shared service agreement with the county, which took effect immediately. According to officials, the township’s first aid squad had been struggling with dwindling membership and the inability to staff daytime emergency medical calls, prompting action from township officials.
“We dropped 37% of our calls last month,” said Anthony Pusillo, president of the Holmdel First Aid Squad, confirming staffing challenges within the township. “We need help with membership.”
“Our EMS squad, admittedly, has been having issues getting out to calls for quite some time, dating back to last year,” Foster said. “Our residents were not being served. We did reach out to the county as one of the potential options to move forward and serve our residents.
“We were missing calls. Now we’re not,” he said.
Holmdel Township has been using shared services agreements since 1998. Since 2009, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center has been handling the township’s 911 emergency calls through a Public Safety Answering Point agreement.
The Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Medical Services Operation, based on the former Fort Monmouth, now also has an ambulance stationed at the Holmdel First Aid Squad’s Centerville Road facility, next to the northern entrance of the retirement community Village Grande at Holmdel. The county EMS will serve as a backup and secondary unit to Holmdel EMS from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, providing quick and effective emergency care.
MedStar is a county-run EMS operation launched by the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office to address volunteer shortages and improve emergency response times, providing support to local agencies and enhancing emergency medical services across the county, according to the county Sheriff’s Office website.
Holmdel First Aid is comprised of a dedicated, diverse group of neighbors, including college students, business professionals, homemakers and retirees. While volunteers continue to play a crucial role in serving the community, staffing shortages have been challenging response time and residents’ safety.
“Volunteer EMTs work relentlessly to ensure public safety and save lives, but the ongoing staffing shortages have posed a serious challenge. MedStar is here to offer much-needed support,” Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone said in a March 24 press release announcing the shared agreement. “MedStar helps strengthen our volunteer force and ensures that residents receive the fastest and most effective emergency care.”
“By integrating MedStar as a secondary unit to assist Holmdel EMS, we are enhancing the ability to respond swiftly to emergencies and provide prompt and professional medical care when it’s needed the most,” Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden said in the statement.
Foster said the arrangement comes at “no direct cost to the township” and includes “a soft-billing process” for insurance companies. If a resident is unable to pay, they will “not receive a second bill,” he said.
Resident Ron Emma initially challenged the agreement at the Monday meeting. “I’ve been requesting a study for a paid fire department for two years now,” Emma said. “This shared services agreement with the EMS first aid squad comes out of nowhere.”
He also questioned the service costs. “There is a cost, not to Holmdel, but to Holmdel residents,” Emma said. He argued that the township has been investing in “buying first-class equipment, ambulances throughout the last few years,” but this shared services agreement is “actually going to be a money-making revenue generator for the county.”
Committee member Rocco Impreveduto said the only other options to resolve the issue were to “pay to get other people licensed up (or) pay to go to a third party and bring them in.” He said the shared services agreement with the county “seems like a win for the residents from a public safety standpoint, and certainly not something that’s going to impact their pocketbooks.”
In February, MedStar marked its one-year anniversary. According to the Monmouth County Sheriff’s website, “more than 6,000 calls for service have been answered, with the average response time under five minutes and 30 seconds, over 4,200 patients were transported to area hospitals.” MedStar ser vices are in shared agreements with several towns in the county, including Ocean Township, Tinton Falls, Neptune City, Sea Girt, Manasquan and now Holmdel.
While the increasing number of towns signing shared EMS agreements with the county restores efficient, timely assistance, it also indicates mounting challenges confronting volunteer emergency services across the nation.
Pusillo ensured the Holmdel EMS squad would stay committed to regaining its strength. It has planned open houses within the next few months and will start offering classes to the community, such as “first aid, CPR, stop-the-bleed, babysitting for kids, whatever it may be. We really want to make sure the community comes to us for them to see what we do, why we’re here,” Pusillo said.
He also assured residents during the Monday meeting that dependence on county EMS doesn’t have to be permanent. “Once we rebuild our daytime members, we’ll be able to start to take back some of those days to reduce the need for MedStar to be in town.”
The article originally appeared in the March 27 – April 2, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
