Community-driven

In a town counting fewer than 300 full-time residents, what stands out about Harrison Community Ambulance is the community part. Established by a grass-roots effort in 1977, the all-volunteer ambulance service has weathered ups and downs but has remained a community-driven project. Besides the ambulance service in Worley, it’s the only independent community ambulance service in Kootenai County.

Harrison Community Ambulance started on a shoestring budget of community donations with 14 volunteers and one used ambulance. It operated out of various garages and its switchboard was located in a local diner.

Today, Harrison Community Ambulance boasts a record 44 members, its own building and three vehicles, including a new $98,000 ambulance purchased with a grant. It has also managed to capture a portion of the taxes collected by the county for emergency services to help with funding.

Maxine Christiansen, a 50-year resident and a founding member of Harrison Community Ambulance, recalls the early years. The Harrison Veterans of Foreign Wars wanted a doctor’s office, “but there were not enough of us to support a doctor. They had a doctor in St. Maries. It was better to get an ambulance and get the people to them.”

The VFW put its support behind the ambulance drive. “The VFW was our sponsor,” Christiansen said. “The VFW helped build the building.”

But first there was no building, only dedicated volunteers.

Fourteen people drove to St. Maries two to three nights a week for Emergency Medical Technician training. “We were all working,” Christiansen said. “We’d throw out questions to one another. That’s how we got a lot of studying done.”

The group became certified in June 1977 and on July 1, 1977, the ambulance service went into service.

They purchased a used ambulance for one silver dollar from Post Falls Ambulance. According to Chris Muench, an EMT volunteer with Harrison Community Ambulance, the vehicle had once been a hearse. The ambulance was kept at various garages around town.

“The switchboard was at Rose’s Cafe,” Christensen recalled. “They would call us. They had copies of our schedules. You could be no farther than your phone would reach. That was when I got my first battery-operated phone. I finally got a (cordless) phone and could go out to the yard.”

Some volunteers were still on party lines. “People were afraid to get on the phone, they were afraid they’d stop the ambulance. Everyone had short conversations,” she said.

Harrison Community Ambulance’s first call involved a woman who had had her throat slit. It was a touchy situation involving tribal police and the FBI. The woman did not survive.

The second emergency was more mundane – a case of sunstroke at an Old Timer’s picnic.

Funding was tight and came from fund-raisers and donations. “We started out on a shoestring with nothing,” Christianson said.

“Responders bought all their own supplies,” added Jeff Wickham, a current EMT volunteer and president of the ambulance service.

In October 1979, a volunteer got a wild idea. “Deanie Curry said, ‘Why don’t we buy a new ambulance?’ ” Christiansen said. They set a goal to raise $10,000, which would be matched by a grant.

“It only took us one year. We sold hot dogs, hamburgers, pies and cakes … In October she proposed it. The next September we got our first (new) ambulance.”

“We were sitting on top of the world with that new ambulance,” said founding member Loy Christiansen.

In 1980, Harrison Community Ambulance got a permanent home. The VFW and other volunteers built the office/station on Frederick Avenue across from City Hall. Funding came from donations and from Harrison resident John Procopio, who left money to Harrison Community Ambulance when he died.

Over the years, the ambulance service saw its funding and membership wax and wane. By the late 1990s, both had waned to a crisis. Membership had dwindled to six people, who nevertheless kept the ambulance operating round-the-clock.

“We were doing in excess of 90 hours a week,” recalled Muench, who was one of the six. “We reached the point where we were struggling to keep going with volunteers.”

At the same time, Kootenai County wanted to integrate and consolidate emergency services, folding service providers into the Fire Department. In 1999, the county took over ambulance service to Harrison. The first year the county ran the operation 24 hours a day, staffing it out of Harrison and using the community’s own ambulance, Muench said.

The second year, the county staffed it during the day, used volunteers at night, and on weekends dispatched an ambulance from Coeur d’Alene.

“Harrison cost the county at least a quarter-of-a-million, although they never gave us a solid figure,” Muench said. “Previously, the largest amount of money we’d ever received (from the county) was $21,000.

“We don’t have a huge run volume. As a paid service, you’ll never recover the cost,” Muench said.

With the county losing money and the community eager to control its own ambulance service again, the county asked the group to resume operation. Harrison Ambulance demanded autonomy and its own license, adequate funding in the form of its share of the EMS tax base and the ability to do its own billing.

“It took about half a year, but the county agreed to that arrangement,” Muench said. Harrison Community Ambulance resumed operation as an independent contractor after two years of county control. The core group of volunteers undertook a grassroots campaign to revitalize the service and recruit members.

“I spent a lot of time drinking coffee at people’s houses,” Christiansen said.

“We called everyone in the phone book,” added Gala Muench, an EMT volunteer.

Today, the service is 44 member volunteers strong. Half of those are EMTs, four of which, including Chris Muench, are advanced EMTs. Ambulance drivers are CPR-trained.

Wickham estimates their annual operating budget at $60,000 to $70,000, about half of which comes from county taxes. The rest comes from patient billing, donations and fund-raisers. The ambulance service also applies for grants, including the one written by Gala Muench that got them the new ambulance.

The aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks produced a lot of funding for rural communities, Wickham explained.

One of the challenges for Harrison Community Ambulance is training and motivating volunteers. There’s a lot of downtime; the service averages just 88 runs a year. Training “is consistently the largest expense, for new people as well as people we have,” Wickham said.

“We’re always recruiting, always trying to keep our numbers up,” Chris Muench added.

With a lot of downtime, volunteers start to wonder if they should continue doing what they’re doing, Christiansen said. “There’s a lot of time on duty when you’re doing nothing.”

“But you have to be ready to do everything,” Gala Muench added.

Harrison Ambulance’s response area covers 624 square miles. Situations they encounter include geriatric and diabetic emergencies and traumas caused by motor vehicles, boats, ATVs and logging accidents. The area’s isolation requires volunteers to be innovative. “You have to make decisions, be creative in how you solve problems,” Muench said.

Volunteering as an EMT, said Chris Muench, “is one of the truly tangible things you can do for other people. You’re doing something real for other people in their time of need.”

“We’ve used (the ambulance service) a lot in our own family,” Christiansen said. “The people here need it. You’re so far from medical help when you need it … I’ll probably do it until I can’t.”