Supervisors in Cumberland County have agreed to pay off the debt owed on the Cumberland Volunteer Rescue Squad’s (CVRS) building in exchange for making the squad a county agency.

Supervisors voted unanimously Sept. 13 to assume ownership of the assets and pay off the $65,923 debt. The exchange comes as the agency faced shutdown because of its dwindled volunteer base; the CVRS currently has only four volunteers.

District Three Supervisor Kevin Ingle said the county began making additional contributions to the CVRS about a year- and-a-half ago because of the fewer volunteers. He said volunteers were only running with CVRS in the evenings and weekends and not at all during the day.

“They were at the point where they were ready to shut their doors and to liquidate all assets,” Ingle said.

He said revenue recovery — billing patients for transportation — has helped, but not enough to sustain operations without county assistance. The paid daytime response came about a year and a half ago, Ingle said.

County Emergency Medical Services Chief Tom Perry called the agreement a “win-win” for the county and volunteers.

Ingle said discussions between the county and CVRS have gone on for several months. He said it wouldn’t be “very responsible” to taxpayers if supervisors continued allocating money for the squad to remain operational.

“The truth is that we don’t have enough volunteers and staff to cover the county,” CVRS President Dr. R.K. Elswick said.

Elswick said county supervisors were “uncomfortable” with allocating the necessary funds to increase paid crew members in light of a small volunteer base. He said it was the agency’s desire to transfer its assets to the county.

“We gave it to them in order to help the citizens of the county receive good EMS service,” Elswick said.

Administrative work, which was being handled by volunteers, will now be handled by county offices, including financial administration and revenue recovery. Ingle said this also includes the hiring and running of EMS crews.

The exchange will give the four “burned-out” volunteers an opportunity to channel back into routine shifts, Ingle said, “and become volunteers again who are actually making a difference. They were so burnt out, they were ready to shut the whole system down.”

Ingle said the county is going to have to look forward to “24/7 paid coverage” because CVRS does not have the necessary volunteers.

“This was not a hostile takeover of the CVRS,” Ingle stressed. “Cumberland County did not go in and grab and take it from them. This came through a series of meetings, finding out what each other’s needs (were).”

He said Cumberland would need to hold “townhouse meetings” to get a feeling from the public about what is and is not an acceptable rate.

“All these things would need to be developed,” Ingle said. “We need to develop, but we were at the chance of losing one whole unit.”