Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 13, 1994 TAG: 9412130093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On one side of the room were more than 20 red-jacketed members of the Bedford Life Saving Crew. On the other side, wearing gray Goode Volunteer Rescue Squad sweat shirts, about 50 people packed the aisles to ask the board to sanction an independent squad in Goode.
The meeting marked the first public request to the board for a Goode squad, though organizers have been working to start a squad since September.
The Bedford Life Saving Crew now is the sole rescue service in Goode, which makes up about one-third of its coverage area. The Bedford crew opened a satellite station in Goode three years ago with a one-time contribution of $30,000 from Goode residents and civic groups.
Since then, a group of emergency volunteers from Goode have alleged that the Goode station's resources are not being utilized properly. Supporters of the Goode squad say its members could respond more quickly and efficiently than Bedford's to calls in their own back yards.
The Goode group is led by Robert and Edie Ballagh, former volunteer rescue workers who quit the Bedford squad in a dispute over bringing their private vehicles to an emergency call.
Robert Ballagh and the Bedford crew's former medical adviser made brief requests to the board Monday asking for its support. Board Chairman Dale Wheeler told them the board must hold a public hearing first. A date has not been set for that.
Bedford Life Saving Crew members were eager to speak about the proposed Goode squad outside the board meeting.
"We feel until somebody can show that [the Goode squad] can provide better medical care than we're giving, we cannot in good conscience pull out and give the job to someone else," said John Barrett.
John Belstner, who lives in Goode, said, "If these people are really interested in helping the community, there's an ambulance there right now.
"I'd like to see them help now instead of waiting because of some grudge."
Since forming this summer, the Goode squad has held rescue classes and now has 23 certified emergency medical technicians.
It also has raised several thousand dollars, which has hurt the Bedford Life Saving Crew's fund-raising. Bedford normally receives about $9,000 in donations each year from Goode residents but expects to raise less this year.
The Ferrum rescue squad donated an ambulance to the Goode squad supporters and the landlord of the Bedford Crew's satellite station has agreed to rent the station to the new Goode squad instead.
The Goode squad needs the approval of the board and certification from the state to succeed.
In other business, the Board of Supervisors formally asked the state to transfer the lease to the state-owned jail operated by the county in Moneta.
The state agreed to give the county the jail this month, following Bedford County's October vote to join Lynchburg, and Appomattox and Campbell counties, in forming the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority.
by CNB