With Surging Support, St. John's Rescue Squad is Ready for the Next Step

If the outpouring of support from Saturday's Open House, held for the Ford-based (SJEMS) is any indication, the feisty rescue squad will be back on their feet before long.

St. John's president Joe Heintjes was obviously pleased at the showing. 

"There were people lined up before we opened," Heintjes said of the demonstration from the community that they want the local ambulance squad back in service. There was a steady flow of residents in the four-hour opportunity, and pages of the petition to were filling up. 

Heintjes gave Mayor John McCormac a lot of credit for the full house the squad got on Saturday.

That's because of a comment the mayor made to a local newspaper that Heintjes said "riled people up."

“The people have never been as safe as they are now,’’ McCormac said to the Home News. “The response times are down and we are very happy with the service. We have absolutely no interest in changing a service that is working better than it ever did when they ran it.’’

"We had people coming in here, saying, who does he think he is?" Heintjes said. "They are angry. They were in here, signing the petition."

The squad was dropped off the township's 911 emergency response map in 2009. They've been trying to come to terms with the McCormac administration, which has made much of trying to put independent volunteer squads under its control. 

While an was finalized last year - complete with a paid full-time McCormac staffer keeping an eye on that squad - Heintjes though it was only a matter of time before St. John's came to an accommodation with the mayor.

It never happened, and Heintjes said as a result, Fords and Keasbey residents, the primary customers for St. John's services, are suffering from the mayor's intractable obstinancy.

"It's impossible to understand where he is coming from, except that he refuses to let people in Fords and Keasbey get local ambulance service from people they know and trust," Heintjes said.

McCormac has not returned repeated phone calls about the St. John's issue.

The St. John's squad is hoping to do a replay of the referendum that Avenel-Colonia squad supporters did, which forced the township council to reinstate the squad to the emergency services map. 

"We are definitely in discussions with the board about it," Heintjes said. "Today was an overwhelming show of support that heartens us. Fords and Keasbey residents, and other Woodbridge Township residents, clearly want us to be there for them."

Local businessman Jim Walker, who owns right around the corner from the squad building, was there, signing the petition.

"I think reopening is a smart idea," Walker said. "It's a heavily populated area, and the squad should be right where it is."

Ninety-four-year-old Joe Nigro is 'mad as hell,' he said. It's not just the mayor who is responsible for St. John's plight. Nigro holds an accusatory finger to 2nd Ward Councilman Richard Dalina and At Large Councilman Jim Carroll, who is from the area.

Both men voted to pull St. John's from the township's emergency services routes. Neither Dalina nor Carroll came to the St. John's open house.

"I'm starting a rumor. I'm running against Dalina," said Nigro, who was only half kidding.

"The mayor's comments didn't sit well with people here. And the councilmen not showing up today, that didn't go over good, either," Nigro said. "They should watch out in the next election."

Heintjes said that the squad's board of directors will be taking the next move, working in consultation with their legal team. More is to come, he said, and asked residents to keep an eye on St. John's for further developments.