Free Ride!
The question is, should Charlottesville pay a cool mill to start a new ambulance service?
The answer is no.
We’re lucky to have one of the best-trained, best-equipped emergency/rescue teams in the state right here in our fair city and right downtown where they can get pretty much anywhere pretty quickly. We’ve also got trained EMTs and paramedics riding nearly every fire engine as an escort and to make sure time is no problem. Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS) has everything it needs to provide top notch service AND FOR FREE.
That’s right, FOR FREE.
Funded by private donations and Albemarle County (gee, CARS serves the city but there’s no city funds in its budget. Hmmm, I wonder where that cool mill should go?) the rescue squad DOES NOT CHARGE for an ambulance ride. Cut your finger off in a jig saw accident but don’t have insurance?
Free ride!
Having my baby and we’re busted?
Free ride!
We’re talking Foghat city here, folks. Where else can you get great service and a free ride to the hospital? Where else do you have doctors, lawyers, teachers and a stray federal prosecutor rubber-gloved and waiting to serve you FOR FREE?
If the city sets up 24-hour service it will not be free. It will also be a from-scratch set up with new equipment, new people, new rules, new regulations and, of course, new fees.
If we need more staff and we need better service, feed the funds to the people who have proved for decades that they know what they’re doing. Give the money to CARS and take a free ride when you need it most.
Posted by Bryan McKenzie at 01:22 PM. Filed under: Daily Screed •
