Capital City Fire/Rescue will be adding a third ambulance crew. That’s following an extra $361,000 approved by the Juneau Assembly.
Travis Wolfe, head of the local firefighters union, praised Monday night’s action. But he reiterated the union’s position that the community needs an ambulance crew staffed around the clock.
“This ordinance is going to get us that first step that we absolutely need and that’s getting that ambulance on the road 24 hours a day,” Wolfe said.
Capital City Fire/Rescue receives an average of 14 calls each day, most for emergency medical care. A third-party hired by the city found that 911 calls have increased by about 40 percent over the past eight years.
This widens a city budget gap. In the last budget adopted by the Assembly, general government expenditures drew $2.6 million from reserves.
Correction: A sentence has been deleted that had misstated the particular staffing levels the money would cover as well as references to the particular shifts.