Schultz: LVA concerned about staffing, falling calls, revenue

LVA is a business, must retain service area, he says

Libby Volunteer Ambulance President Craig Schultz has been with the service for 28 years, the last five as its president, and he knows all too well the difficulty in staffing requests for calls.

During a candid interview Saturday, Schultz detailed difficulties in staffing despite declining call volume, his desire to retain quality service, and the LVA stance with Cabinet View Fire Service Area.

“We’ve got about 20 EMTs, and it is difficult to get coverage for 24/7,” Schultz said. “I feel it’s important to keep the service as it is. When people call 911, they expect to see an ambulance show up.”

Schultz said the LVA is experiencing staffing problems for the same reason other businesses — worker flight to areas where jobs are more plentiful. The LVA is suffering because it counts on volunteers, and those volunteers need regular jobs, which are not too plentiful in Lincoln County, and so staffing problems exist.

   “Our volunteers stay with us on average about five years,” Schultz said. “Some less, some more. And, there’s a lot invested in training.”

   Asked whether staffing could get worse, Schultz, who is passionate about the LVA, paused before answering.

   “I don’t know what we’ll do if the environmental cleanup ends,” Schultz said. “I’d like to think we could still be 24/7, but I don’t know.”

   Volunteers with Libby Ambulance are asked to work 48 hours a month, and Schultz said sometimes it’s necessary to get those volunteers to work more.

   “When they go over 48 hours, yes, we do offer them pay,” Schultz said, stopping short of what that amount is. “I can tell you this, it’s the worst-paying job in the world. … We don’t do this for the pay. It’s to help people.”

   As LVA president, Schultz admits he does feel the need to fill in when others can’t.

   While on duty, Libby ambulance volunteers have the opportunity to stay at the Ambulance Barn, and there are sleeping quarters, which some volunteers use.

   “We require that they be within five minutes of the Ambulance Barn,” Schultz said, indicating there are four beds, a couch and a shower on the premises for those who wish to stay there.

   Despite the staffing challenges, Schultz then spoke about the LVA’s response time.

   “We have a 12-minute response time for calls six miles out,” Schultz said. “That’s (darn) good, even for big cities. And, yes, we’re proud of that.”

   Told he obviously takes pride in the LVA, Schultz defended it like a business — his business.

   “It IS a business,” Schultz said. “We need the call volume to sustain us. That’s why we’re concerned (about Cabinet View). … It’s like if Libby had five grocery stores. They all couldn’t exist. You’d lose some, it’d be like chopping fingers off,” Schultz said passionately defending LVA’s client base.

   Asked why he felt that way, Schultz said there is history, and it goes back about five years.

   “We used to keep an ambulance out at Fisher River (Fire Service Area),” he began. “It went well for awhile, but soon they wanted their own ambulance service, and they got it. I can see it again (with Cabinet View).”

   Schultz said it caused strained relations with Fisher River for awhile, but he said, despite the fall-out, relations now are improving. Still, he said, he is wary.

   “You (fool) me once, shame on you. (Fool) me a second time, shame on me,” Schultz said. “We’re not going to let that happen again. And, it’s not only me, the (Libby Ambulance) Board feels that way, and so do our people.”

   Schultz explained when Fisher River began its own service, Lincoln County Commissioners allocated part of the funding pie that was going to Libby Volunteer Ambulance to Fisher River.

   “The county can’t fully fund us now. We can’t (withstand) another cut in funding,” he said. “And, it’s difficult for our dispatchers. We go out to mile marker 52. After that it’s their’s,” Schultz said of Fisher River’s response zone.

   Schultz indicated because Cabinet View is so close to Libby, he fears the LVA service area would be greatly lessened that the current 52-mile marker it has now with Fisher River.

   “They’re just right outside town,” Schultz said. “What then? What will that do (to LVA’s service area) then?” Schultz asked rhetorically.

   Cabinet View has sought to expand its services to be emergency responders, however, the Lincoln County Commission, acting on a statement from County Attorney Bernie Cassidy, said it must refrain and only fight structure fires.

   Schultz was told of a recent interview with Cabinet View Fire Service Area Board Secretary Tommy Cook who said that agency is not interested in ambulance service but instead just being first responders; being an entity to locally dispatch to stabilize victims until Libby Volunteer Ambulance personnel arrived to transport, to which Schultz was skeptical.

   “I’ve seen it before,” Schultz said. “I can tell you, I’d just rather it all be under one umbrella.”

   It is that kind of distrust — on both sides — that prompted the Cabinet View Fire Service Area on Nov. 18 to file a declaratory petition for judgment in District Court against Lincoln County, Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe and the Troy and Libby ambulance service dispatchers.

   “Libby needs the LVA, and it needs it 24/7,” Schultz said. “To do this, we need to run it like a business.”