Lacey EMS Receives New Ambulance

presented their new ambulance to the township committee on Thursday.

With 50 active volunteers, three ambulances and one first-response vehicle, handles 2,000 calls a year, covering Bamber Lake, Forked River, the Oyster Creek Generating Station, and parts of the Garden State Parkway and Route 539.

“We frequently have two to three ambulances on the road handling calls at one time,” said John Hode, president of Lacey EMS. “We have a good service program for our ambulances and maintain them very well, but in time everything wears out.”

Hode compared the emergency vehicle to a car. Overtime it endures wear and tear and must be replaced, he said. The service life of an ambulance is usually five to eight years and their oldest dated back to 1996. The squad is currently in the process of figuring out the replacement cycle for its two other ambulances.

The new ambulance, which was on its maiden voyage on Thursday evening, was $140,000, he said. The Lacey Township Committee agreed to give Lacey EMS $100,000 while the squad had to raise $40,000.

Much of the donations came from the squad’s yearly letter that was sent out to residents, Hode said.

“Because of managing our finances properly and watching our spending, to be able to contribute to the $100k the township gave us,” he said.

Local businesses, including the German Butcher, Forked River House and Kohl’s also assisted the squad in their fundraising efforts, he said.

“Basically everyone is working together,” Hode said. “We’re very grateful to the township to be interested in helping the volunteer EMS services. The committee is making sure the township has adequate emergency services in town. Otherwise the township would have to pay it all out of the tax burden.”

Members of the committee thanked Lacey EMS for the new ambulance.

“This is vital equipment that can save peoples lives,” Committeeman David Most previously said.