The Cumberland County Board of Supervisors has agreed to allocate $20,000 to the Cumberland Volunteer Rescue Squad to aid the organization in its operations and continued expenses.

The money will come from the general fund balance of the county budget, according to County Administrator and Attorney Vivian Seay Giles.

“With their situation with bringing in a company to do paid service during the day, we really did not allocate any line-item budget for them this year because we were so uncertain what their costs would be to support them and to be able to pay the paid crew to come in,” said District Three Supervisor Kevin Ingle, who also serves as the county’s emergency management director.

“We were so unsure about what their income would be and so, we didn’t not provide a line item as far as a budget for them this year like we do all the other agencies,” Ingle said, noting the agency’s revenue recovery efforts — soft billing patients for transport and care.

Ingle said that in June, the rescue squad requested $20,000, and made the funds stretch until now.

When the agency gets low in funds after accounting for revenue recovery and donations, “We try to inject them with money to keep their doors open, to keep the squad operating.”

“We’re hoping that this will last until the end of the budget year,” he said.

“The $20,000 will allow us to, at least for 2-3 months allow us to continue operations,” said rescue squad president R.K. Elswick. “We have, over the last three years, tried to reduce our operational costs. At the same time, we’re trying to increase our revenue recovery.”

Elswick said that the agency only has four volunteers to cover the middle portion of the county. “All of us have jobs outside Cumberland,” he said.

“What this allows us to do is to use our revenue recovery money to pay for emergency staffing solutions … the contracting company that we use.”

The paid medical staff work 10 hours a day, Monday through Friday. The squad is looking to increase the coverage to 12 hours a day, he said.

He said using the paid crews have been in place since March, and have worked wonderfully for the community.

“It allows us to, while we’re still trying to stabilize on our revenue recovery and increase our revenue recovery, at the same time it’s paying the operations costs.”

Operations costs the agency $7,000-$8,000 a month, he said.

The struggle for volunteers and donations and revenue has led the rescue squad to work closer with the Cartersville Volunteer Rescue Squad, he said.

“Right now now we do our training together. We share some of our calls,” Elswick said.

The call response is higher and the response time is lower because of the paid crews and the mutual aid, he said.

“It’s a vital need. You’ve got to have a viable EMS system in the county because you cannot function without it.”

The agency is working on grants to fund a new squad.

“We have three ambulances and two are broken right now,” he said.

About 10 years ago, a mortgage was taken out on the building to purchase new ambulances. “We’re down to about $75-76,000. We really want to pay that off.”