SUPPORT YOUR SQUADS

THE SUPPORT YOUR SQUADS INITIATIVE:

What do we stand for?

Equitable investment into the rescue infrastructure of Surry County. More so than other disciplines of emergency services, Rescue is critically underfunded. A diversified number of revenue streams are required to keep Rescue Squads functional, even on a volunteer basis. While each squad individually is tackling sustainability in their own communities, the Support Your Squad initiative aims to explain to our citizens why financial and volunteer stability are difficult to obtain in Surry County. The objective is to inspire citizens to become active participants in the policies and priorities that impact Surry County Rescue Squads and mobilize them through information and hard statistics.

APPLES TO APPLES:

How do we Currently Invest In Emergency Services?

Investment Per Call

The easiest way to compare numbers is to compare how much money we invest per call. Rural, Fire-Tax funded fire departments are in dark red, City-Tax funded fire departments are in bright red, rescue squads are in green, County EMS is in orange. A "call" is anytime the agency responds to a request for emergency services (when someone calls 911 for a car accident, for example).

We would expect that as call volume increases, funding would level out. But this is not the case. We can see that funding-per-call is completely independent of funding. In other words, how "busy" a department is appears to have little impact on how much funding they receive.

Apples to Apples: We would also expect agencies with similar call volumes to have similar funding, but as you can see Mountain Park Rescue Squad (210 calls) receives $237.42 per call, while Ararat VFD (219 calls) receives $572.81 per call. Both agencies provide first response, making it a very even playing field for funding.

Investment Per Citizen

How much are you worth in an emergency according to what is funded to your agency? The graph below shows both the population each agency serves, and how much money each individual gets. Since there are only 6 rescue agencies, they will almost always have larger areas that fire departments. Yet, the disparity in funding is far greater than what we should see with that correlation.

Apples to Apples: If the population is close between two districts, we should similar funding levels. Elkin Rescue Squad (6,730 citizens) receives about $9.14 per person. The next closest population is Franklin VFD (7,890) who receives $60.98 per person. Despite having a 14.7% increase in population, they receive an 85% more in funding: 6 times the amount per person! Both agencies have first response capabilities along their discipline (fire or rescue).

Investment Per Square Mile

We can't always control our call volume nor how many people live in our districts. Fire departments are strategically placed based on the number of miles out from their station. By that logic, the coverage area (geographical square miles the district contains) should be relatively even. Just as Fire Departments might be called into non-residential and non-property areas for fires, Rescue Squads could also be called in for searches and high-angle rescues.

Apples to Apples: Elkin Rescue Squad (31.82 square miles) has an appropriation of about $1,932.75 per square mile. Pine Ridge VFD (30.63 square miles) receives $5,261.57 per square mile. With only an approximately 1.2 square mile difference (4% difference in coverage area), we shouldn't see a $3,328.82 disparity (63% difference in funding).

Investment and Population Density

Now that you've seen how, according to financial investment, your call to 911 is worth, what you are worth as a citizen, and what your area is worth, what is the actual amount invested into your Fire, Rescue, and EMS districts? Lump sums on their own tell us very little, so we paired them with the population density (people per square mile) of each district. The argument is often that regardless of how many calls an agency has, more urban or densely populated areas will have more to "take care of". If this argument is true, would should be investing this way. We should, on this graph, see both bars rising equally and consistently from left to right. Is that what you see?

Apples to Apples: Surry County is considered a rural county, with 4 municipalities (2 towns and 2 cities). Pilot Mountain Rescue Squad (105.4 people per square mile) receives $64,368 annually for their district. Central Surry VFD (102.3 people per square mile) is projected to receive $249,925 from their tax base. What makes this comparison better? Pilot Mountain Rescue Squad has jurisdiction over a state park, runs medical and rescue calls, and receives no supplemental funding from the County. Central Surry VFD, by contrast, runs strictly fire calls and receives an additional $50,000 from the county annually to fund a full-time firefighter (this funding is not included in any of this data).

COMMON QUESTIONS

True or False?

Rescue Squads are Comparable to Fire Departments in both function and funding

Taxes

Many people do not realize that Rescue Squads are not funded by the Fire Tax that you pay on your property and vehicles. This goes only to fire departments, meaning that as property value increases accross their districts (more homes built = more value), the more they expect in tax collection. Rescue Squad funds come from the General Fund, which is a set amount voted on each fiscal year by the Board of County Commissioners. While still tax dollars, it does not have the ability to fluctuate with the growth of their communities.

Relief Funds

The State of North Carolina collects tax money for and implements relief funds for fire departments and rescue squads across the state. As you can see here , however, how it is utilized and administered varies greatly between the two agency types. The Rescue Squad Worker's Relief Fund is extremely limited to the spending and accessibility of the funds compared to that of neighboring fire departments.

Grant Opportunities

Rescue Squads do not qualify for all of the same grants that fire departments do. Here are just a few examples of the disparities that exist:

FEMA SAFER Grant: A grant only for fire departments to provide staffing to their communities. This is despite some squads having higher call volumes than their fire department counterparts (in 2022, Mount Airy Rescue Squad had the 3rd highest call volume of any agency in the county!)
NC OSFM COVID-19 RELIEF Grant: While NC OSFM did host grants that Rescue Squads were also eligible for, this extra $10,000 was allowed only to fire departments across the state.
Volunteer Fire Department Fund: This is the NC OSFM equivalent to the Volunteer Rescue, EMS Fund, locally known as the "50/50 Grant". In this grant, volunteer rescue squads, EMS agencies, and/ or fire departments can have half of their expenses for requested items reimbursed by the state. There is a key difference though: fire departments receiving less than $50,000 in local public funding do not have to match funding, and those under $75,000 in public funding only have to match 1/3 of the cost. Rescue Squads do not have this benefit (for reference, Mountain Park Rescue Squad would have qualified for the no-match option; up until Fiscal Year 2022, which until FY2023 was the only emergency service entity funded under $50,000 by the county annually).

Local Funding

In FY2022, the Surry Board of County Commissioners approved to fund staffing for 5 fire departments across the county. Of these fire departments funded, 2 of the 5 only provide fire suppression, leaving their neighboring Rescue Squad to handle medical first response and rescue calls with no paid personnel.

Why Do We Have Rescue Squads, EMS, And Fire Departments?

To provide specialized care and to develop a specialized workforce.

Rescue Squads provide the unique service of Technical Rescue to their communities. Many counties have a single or no dedicated rescue services. The benefit of having multiple local rescue squads means that you can have services located locally, reducing response time. The Rescue Squads of Surry County also provide basic medical first response in parts of their jurisdiction, and also provide back-up EMS transport capabilities. Without the burden of providing and funding for advanced medical care or fire suppression, you benefit by receiving rescuers specifically trained for your area as well as better training in the field of technical rescue.

EMS focuses on optimal emergency medical care at the advanced level (ALS), whereas all other first response agencies provide a basic level of care (BLS). Skilled Paramedics staff these trucks and are focused on being your clinical expert during your time of need. While all agencies who provide medical first response are skilled and competent, they do not have to dedicate training time to advanced practices (like IVs, Cardiac Monitoring, and certain medications). This allows EMS to take over as the medical experts, and allows other responders to focus on becoming professionals in their field.

Fire Departments are the only agencies in Surry County who go into the blaze and fight fire. In Surry County, 4 fire departments are strictly fire suppression only, while the others provide medical first response and a few provide light- and medium-rescue services to assist the Rescue Squads. Being able to put their focus into firefighting means better results in the field and better streamline investment into fire safety equipment.

While we all do different things, it is important to note that we all work together to save lives and make a difference in our community.

Who Typically Handles Rescue?

It's a common misconception to think emergency services looks the same everywhere. Consider these examples:

In New York City, the Fire Department handles all non-law enforcement emergency services.
In Stokes County, NC, Fire Departments handle all rescue needs
In Forsyth County, NC, 911 communications are initially handled by the Winston-Salem Police Department and may then be transferred to a number of other agencies
In Cumberland County, NC, Search & Rescue is handled by the Sherriff's Department
In Yosemite National Park, CA, the US Park Service is responsible for rescue
In Oregon, SAR organizations are responsible for rescue
In the Shaler Township, PA and in New Fairfield, CT, a unique first responder, the Fire Police, exist

There is a spectrum of models; from fully integrated Public Safety Officers (EMS, Fire, Rescue, and Law Enforcement all in one) to fully separated models, such as what we have here in Surry County (911, EMS, Rescue, Fire, Law Enforcement, and Emergency Management are all separate entities).

To say that rescue belongs to a single group would be wrong. The Rescue Squad model in Surry County is perfectly valid, and allows for a local response to handle high-technicality emergencies. If we condense rescue into other emergency services, it begs the question: why not condense fire, EMS, Rescue, 911, and law enforcement all into a single entity county wide?

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