First responders call for aid after collapse of building $1.1M renovation leaves faithful squad in the red BY COLLEEN LUTOLF Staff Writer SCOTT PILLING staff Dover/Brick First Aid Squad Capt. Winnie Hartvigsen explains the renovations taking place at the squad's building that collapsed during a roof repair in March. Winnie Hartvigsen is something of an institution.A Dover/Brick Volunteer First Aid Squad member since the late 1960s, Hartvigsen has seen her share of trauma, including a Cedar Bridge Avenue car crash four years ago that ended with Hartvigsen being transported to the hospital in her own ambulance after she fell out of another squad's rig. But like Hartvigsen's shattered right ankle she was left with after her fall, the squad's 40-year-old building on Route 35 that collapsed in March during a roof replacement project could never be repaired. "The walls were not supposed to come down, but they did," squad Co-Capt. Jane Marion said. For years, the squad had been working around the problematic roof - rain and snow outside meant an obstacle course of garbage cans inside the building, melting snow caked on returning rigs would drain into the squad's meeting room, and ceiling tiles would literally fall down around people's ears. SCOTT PILLING staff The new Dover/Brick First Aid Squad building on Route 35 in Normandy Beach. "Once I walked into the big meeting room and half the ceiling was on the floor," Hartvigsen said. "We had the ladies auxiliary meeting in there earlier. I wasn't sure if they were underneath it." Luckily, the building was empty. Already slated for a $997,000 renovation that the squad subdivided their Route 35 North lot to pay for, the building collapse added at least another $100,000 in costs. "The Dover Township fire inspector decided it was no longer a renovation, it's now new construction, so we've encountered a number of code changes," Marion said. A wall the squad had planned to build to separate the garage bay from the building now had to be a fire wall and the building will now comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements. But Hartvigsen is not quite sure how the squad, a nonprofit organization, will pay for the additional costs. The two townships Dover/Brick serves haven't stepped up to help, Marion said. Dover has agreed to waive all the building fees and Brick will pave the squad's parking lot for free, Marion said. "They waived the fees, but they haven't expedited things for us, and we're desperate," she said. "We've been here a long time and actively riding. They're doing nothing to reward us for hanging in here the whole time. Brick said they'd help and pave the lot. It's more than Dover has done." The Dover/Brick First Aid Squad was formed in 1951 with its original building located at Route 35 and Jeannette Drive on the Brick side of Normandy Beach. It moved to Dover, and the building that later collapsed, in March of 1965. Their coverage area begins at the southern border of Mantoloking and ends at Lavallette. The squad has approximately 10 members who respond to about 600 to 900 calls annually, with fewer than half of those calls in Brick, Hartvigsen said. Dover/Brick logged 334 calls in 2003, according to township records. The lion's share of those calls are received in the summer months. This year, Dover/Brick answered 67 calls in Brick, acting Business Administrator Scott Pezarras said. "I believe we support our volunteers," Pezarras said. "We believe in what they're doing and we believe they have a purpose in this community." Since 1999, Brick has given Dover/Brick First Aid Squad $292,000 in equipment and funding, Pezarras said. Brick purchased a $125,000 Hummer ambulance about 10 years ago for the squad, which is often used for beach and flood rescues during the off-season, and the squad has a water ambulance parked at the dock of Hartvigsen's Mantoloking Shores home. Dover and Brick give the squad a combined $44,000 annually, but those funds pay for the daily operations of the squad, Marion said. Brick used to give each of Brick's four volunteer first aid squads $20,000 out of its operating budget. After two years of paying only for the squads' $2,125 contract with Alert Ambulance Service in 2004, the township began to fund the squads again through the township's capital budget, which provided township oversight in how the funds were spent, Pezarras said. "The township has supported all ambulance services, but in this difficult time, escalating property taxes, it's an issue," Pezarras said. "We do support the volunteers, but sometimes you just can't afford all the requests." Whenever a call for help goes out from any of Brick's three ocean beaches, it's the Dover/Brick squad who gets the call. "Our calls triple during the summer months," Hartvigsen said. "The three Brick beaches are one of our big customers. We do go across the bridge into [mainland] Brick." If a snowstorm is looming in winter, the squad will sleep in the building "because we can't get in and out of our homes," Marion said. A few years ago, squad members slept on the squad's floor for five consecutive nights. "We couldn't go home," Marion said. "But now we'll have a locker facility for clothes." A laundry room has also been constructed in the new building to avoid those kinds of stints, but the squad can't afford a washer or dryer, Marion said. Hartvigsen recently sent out fundraising letters to all the residents on the barrier island, but the ladies auxiliary, the squad's fundraising arm of the organization, has suspended its operations since the building is no longer available, she said. The squad has saved a few thousand dollars by wiring the building in-house thanks to squad member Pat Fehily, but it's still thousands of dollars short. Mainland squads can request donations from businesses in their coverage area, but "unfortunately, there's nothing like an appliance store, there's no businesses like that in this area," Hartvigsen said. The squad has been operating out of the Ocean Beach Fire Company building since the renovation began and had hoped to move into their new building in September, but construction delays have postponed access to the building until December, Marion said. "Residents have always been very generous. We receive a lot of community support," Hartvigsen said. "We've bent over backward to keep riding and keep serving." Anyone wishing to donate money to the Dover/Brick First Aid Squad may send a check to Capt. Winnie Hartvigsen, P.O. Box 172, Normandy Beach 08739.