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New Middletown officials asked about 911 response
NEW MIDDLETOWN
A resident asked village council why his recent call for help brought Springfield Township police and ambulance to his door instead of New Middletown’s.
Daniel Patoray of 108 Main St. told council Monday that on Sept. 22, he needed an ambulance at his home, and his daughter called 911 from her cell phone. No village ambulance or police responded, although the police and fire departments are less than a block away. Patoray said he now has a $900 bill from Springfield Township and questioned why the village did not respond.
Police Chief Vince D’Egidio replied that the village didn’t respond because it was never notified. Council President Richard DeBucci explained that any cell-phone 911 call made from within the village goes to Beaver Township’s dispatching center which then sends Springfield Township emergency personnel to the scene, even when the call is in New Middletown.
“For whatever reason, the township does not elect to make the call to us,” DeBucci said.
He explained that if Patoray’s daughter had called from a land line, the village would have sent a first responder ambulance backed up with Clemente Ambulance, the company New Middletown contracts with.
Officials said Patoray would not have received any price discount from Clemente for being a village resident. However, he likely would have received help quicker from nearby first-responders in the village rather than waiting for the Springfield Township ambulance to come from the township’s administration building on South Range Road.
D’Egidio said after the meeting that despite repeated requests to Beaver and Springfield Township by the New Middletown Fire Department to refer cell-phone calls within the village to New Middletown, the calls continue to be sent to Springfield Township. D’Egidio commented that Springfield Township Police are only allowed to respond inside the village if the village allows them. He added, “If we are not called, we assume no liability.”
New Middletown Fire Chief Bill Opsitnik was not at Monday’s meeting.