HONESDALE, PA — Starting this Sunday, June 16, an ambulance will be servicing Honesdale  full time.

Cottage Hose Ambulance Corps, which operates out of Carbondale, will provide a basic-life support (BLS) ambulance to the borough staffed with paid EMTs. The Honesdale Borough Council addressed concerns about the volume of calls in the area by engaging in meetings with local providers and eventually deciding on Cottage.

There is not currently a full-time paid ambulance in Honesdale, putting significant strain on nearby volunteers, who can come from places like Seelyville, Prompton and White Mills. Ambulances from companies including Commonwealth Health System respond to calls in Honesdale if they have a unit nearby. But without an ambulance operating specifically in Honesdale 24/7, wait times for some emergency calls have been long.

“Over the years, the number of calls for assistance has increased, while at the same time the number of volunteers has decreased,” emergency management coordinator for Honesdale Borough, Stan Pratt, wrote in a letter to The River Reporter earlier this year. This inequity has presented what he called “tremendous challenges” for small groups of volunteers trying to fill gaps left by paid ambulance companies. 

The ambulance coming to Honesdale will respond to calls primarily within the Honesdale vicinity, but also its surrounding communities, such as Dyberry, said Cottage Ambulance Operations Manager Stephen Fish. Pratt added that a basic life support ambulance is less likely than an advanced life support ambulance to be called out on mutual aid.

This is a “step in the right direction,” Pratt said, though more service is needed for the whole county. This step is good news for people like Jim Mason, a local business owner who has been concerned about high ambulance response times since he had to call 911 for a customer recently.

Pratt said that White Mills EMS volunteers are on par to take more than 1,000 calls this year—that volume is more than a volunteer unit can or should typically handle.

Mason was at the White Mills Pet Shop, which is owned by his wife, when a regular customer started to experience issues with her new pacemaker. Eventually, an ambulance from Carbondale showed up.

“We waited about a half hour,” Mason said.

Honesdale residents will receive subscription slips for the new service soon.