TECH RESCUE SQUAD MEMBER COMPLAINS, GETS SUSPENSION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993                   TAG: 9304020287
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
TECH RESCUE SQUAD MEMBER COMPLAINS, GETS SUSPENSION
A member of Virginia Tech's volunteer rescue squad was suspended from the group after publicly stating that there is little cooperation between Tech's squad and Blacksburg's volunteer rescue squad.
Peter Martin, 22, was suspended from the squad Thursday by Keith A. Furr, Tech's director of Environmental Health & Safety Service and the university liaison with its volunteer rescue squad.
Last month, Martin wrote a letter - which was not published - to this newspaper that blasted the Blacksburg volunteer rescue squad for not calling Virginia Tech's rescue squad when backup help was needed on an emergency call.
He gave a copy of the letter to a town official.
Martin then wrote a letter to university administrators retracting many of his inflammatory statements, but still urging the two rescue squads to draft a mutual-aid policy.
Mutual aid is used in a situation where a rescue squad that can't provide the best possible care will call a neighboring rescue squad for assistance.
"I have come to the grim realization that my initial letter . . . has created a tremendous amount of tension between Blacksburg Rescue Squad, Virginia Tech Rescue Squad and Virginia Polytechnic Institute," Martin said in letter Tuesday. "I realize that I was perhaps hasty in presenting the letter to the press, but I strongly felt that all other avenues had been exhausted and the media's ability to reach the citizens was my last resort."
Tensions eased until Wednesday when a member of the Blacksburg Town Council told Tech administrators that Martin had been overheard discussing individual ambulance calls with a newspaper reporter.
"I think it's just asinine that I was suspended for writing a letter that was never published," he said.
Larry Hincker, director of university relations for Tech, said the suspension was the culmination of a series of problems that Martin has had with the rescue squad's university advisers.
"He has surfaced a very real problem, but his method of solving it seems a little odd," he said. "It was an issue of public safety that didn't need to be dealt with by writing a letter to the newspaper."
Martin, a former Tech student who did not enroll in classes this semester, was an officer for Tech's rescue squad until about eight months ago when university administrators forced him to step down for disobeying an order.
Despite his dismissal, Martin's idea for a mutual-aid policy still may be carried out.
Officers of Tech's rescue squad have drafted a policy that spells out specific guidelines for mutual aid and officers in the two squads met in a closed meeting Wednesday night to talk about it.
Jerry Olinger, captain of Blacksburg's volunteer rescue squad, said he is confident the two rescue squads can work out their differences.
"In general, we work well with Tech rescue," he said. "There's a little friction every now and then, but we are going to get that all worked out."
Olinger pointed out that Blacksburg and Tech's rescue squads are members of the Western Virginia Emergency Medical Services Council in Salem, which has its own mutual-aid policy.
Gary Lautenschlager, executive director of the medical services council, said that group's policy basically says that if one rescue squad can't provide service that a neighboring rescue squad has permission to answer the call.
"It is generally up to each local government to figure out who is going to provide backup coverage," he said. "Many of [the rescue squads] have gone beyond our agreement and created one of their own."
Hincker said Tech was unaware such an agreement didn't exist between Tech and Blacksburg's rescue squads.
"I don't know why there wasn't a formal policy," said Bonnie Svrcek, Blacksburg's assistant town manager. "I do find it disappointing that individual differences are reflecting negatively on both squads."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB