Our Story
The Conception and Inception of the
Carthage Area Rescue Squad, Inc.
Conception is the thought, or spark, the idea, that gives birth to an event or an entity. Inception is the resulting explosion that sets it in motion; that makes it come alive. The conception of the Carthage Area Rescue Squad was of long duration, with nearly a miscarriage many times. The gestation period was nearly seven years long, finally on January 1, 1967, the delivery. What a baby!
The information that I have provided is primarily from newspaper clippings and my own memories of the era. As others read article, feel free to make corrections and additions, unabashedly!
It is difficult to put a defining date of the beginnings of the Carthage Area Rescue Squad. It was certainly 1961, but, for the next five years it was a very much up and down operation, usually more “down” than “up”. The first official act of being “on duty” was in August of ’61 when the squad stood by at a large softball tournament at the Carthage Athletic Field. About that time the unit purchased a used bread van from Durkee’s Bakery for $ 125 and proceeded to paint it yellow and equip it for emergency service. It was piece number two, of a long litany of vehicles that would go on the serve proudly with the CARS logo. It joined a used funeral hearse that had already been adapted to squad use.
Newspapers of the time reported on various fund raisers. There was discussion of renting the former W.T. Grant building in the 300 block of State Street for training purposes and possible holding “Bingo” games. Meetings were being held at the Carthage Fire Department building on South Mechanic Street. The paid drivers at Carthage Fire Headquarters fielded phone calls for rescue squad service.
In December 1961, a lease was signed with a West Carthage service station to house squad vehicles on the lower level. The problem was it was below grade storage, getting up to street level after snow fell was very difficult. Previously, vehicles were kept for a time at the service station in the 400 block of State Street, but they had to be parked outside in the snow during the daily operation of the garage.
In the fall of 1961 a successful lost hunter training exercise was held on the Texas Road in the Town of Wilna. The use of the newly available Citizens Band radios was touted as being very advantageous in the training event. Citizen’s Band radios had a down side, the entire community knew what was happening!
At inception I believe that the perceived mission of the CARS was a bit broader that we now find. “Rescue” figured heavily in that pioneering concept. Ambulances transported sick and injured, fire departments put out fires, no agency was equipped to fill that void between; finding the loss; bringing injured off cliffs; and removal of patients from automobile accidents. In the next decade the fire service assumed most the rescue duty, CARS morphed into an ambulance service.
In early 1963 a fund raiser was held at the Strand Theater, by showing a benefit movie, “to help the rescue squad to become active again”, clearly difficult times staying in motion in those early years.
Since all three funeral homes operated ambulance service in those early days, and most calls for an ambulance came from physicians and police agencies, it was difficult for the squad to get a call. By monitoring the CB radio channels on week-ends, when there was a greater number of Saturday night accidents, due to differing alcohol consumption rules, the squad could occasionally grab a call before the private services showed up. Carthage had six physicians in those days, all of whom made house-calls, the need for ambulance service was much less than it is now. Literally, there was no, “raison de entree”; no reason to exist.
Existing unwritten arrangements provided that if a certain physician was called, it followed that a certain ambulance service was alerted and the injured were taken to the co-operating pair’s favorite hospital. The old, “one hand washes the other” deal. The squad was the “new kid on the block”. Tough to make a dent in something that had been working well for forty years.
A December 22, 1966 newspaper announcement would spark a change that made the rescue squad the fully operation agency it is today. The rescue squad was going to be “re-activated”, (again), to provide continual and uninterrupted ambulance service to the community when the funeral directors ended ambulance service nine days later! Not a lot of time to pull things together. It was to be a stop-gap arrangement until further arrangement could be worked out. Throw Christmas and New Year’s Holidays into those nine days made for some jumping!
All three funeral homes had wanted to get out of the ambulance service for years, but, because of competitive advantage, none would quit unless they all quit. New York State made it happen.
Because of Federal highway monies, ambulance service was to be regulated. No more hearse/ambulance combination vehicles, ambulance had to be ambulances, training would be required. No more using mortuary stretchers for living patients. No more having patients having to wait for the conclusion of a funeral service, before the multi-purpose vehicle could transform itself from hearse to ambulance, and “Oh, don’t forget to sweep the flowers out, before you respond!”
The two smaller volume funeral directors both sold there hearse to the squad, it was cheaper to rent a hearse for a funeral service than own one. One, I think was a silver 1960 combination Cadillac unit already set up for ambulance service with removable rollers and pop-up seats in the rear. The other was a 1958 black straight hearse with a kitchen chair with shorted legs, bouncing around in the bag for the attendant. You held onto the cot with one hand and the wall with the other!
The rescue squad took over all medical transportation services at midnight on New Year’s Eve, January 1st, 1967. Nothing happened! For four days nothing happened, on Wednesday, the squad received four calls within a 24 hour period. Off and going, and growing!
The Town of Wilna Highway department Barn on West End Avenue became home of CARS as it started it escalation to become a primer provider of medical services transportation in the area. Vehicles were starting to become the blue and white color that is so familiar to us now.
Changes were coming in lots of areas, in May of 1969 CARS helped move the patients from Sligar’s Nursing Home at 812 State State, site of the former Carthage Area Hospital, also previously owned by the Sligars’ to a new state-of-the-art nursing facility on West Street, adjacent to the already operating Carthage Area Hospital, the Greenbriar Nursing Home. After nearly half a century the proud old Strickland mansion, would give up the mantle of medical care and revert to private residency
The new Carthage Area Hospital held the base transmitter for two-way communications with both rescue squad ambulances having transceivers. Incoming calls were routinely handled by the hospital switchboard, and passed along to the squad. The advantage was that the hospital’s emergency room, could get an advance notice of pending problems.
If one could pick a date and say the Carthage Area Rescue Squad had arrived it would arguably be November 1, 1968. January 1, 1967 was important, the first day of full-time operation, however that was a pieced-together operation just finding it’s way into the world of emergency medical service. 11/1/1968, after an open house during the afternoon, that Friday evening, a dedication ceremony was conducted at the new squad headquarters. A new purposely designed and constructed building situated immediately behind the hospital, next to the nursing home, raised it’s doors. On premise eating and sleeping quarters allowed the members to be ever vigilant.
With local clergy officiating, and Joseph P. Joynt, as President of the squad, Dr. Arnold J. Lee, Twin Villages Heath Officer, and long-time community physician was honored for his service to the squad.
A new squad building now stands on Riverside Drive extension. This era, of which I speak, of service to the community has passed away, along with many of the dedicated volunteers, who manned the squad during these formative years. I have tried hard not to mention names in this narrative for fear of omitting folks who had worked hard in the daily buzz of doing business, but, perhaps didn’t find their names into the “Carthage Republican Tribune” and the “Watertown Times” because they may not have held an office, but, no less necessary. Their names are memorialized in all of the old newspaper clippings I have read through, in writing the account, by this statement: “The injured were removed from the scene by the efforts of The Carthage Area Rescue Squad.” A fitting memorial for anyone.
7 January 2019 The recollections from Fr. Samuel P. Lundy+
Carthage Area Rescue Squad, Inc.
Conception is the thought, or spark, the idea, that gives birth to an event or an entity. Inception is the resulting explosion that sets it in motion; that makes it come alive. The conception of the Carthage Area Rescue Squad was of long duration, with nearly a miscarriage many times. The gestation period was nearly seven years long, finally on January 1, 1967, the delivery. What a baby!
The information that I have provided is primarily from newspaper clippings and my own memories of the era. As others read article, feel free to make corrections and additions, unabashedly!
It is difficult to put a defining date of the beginnings of the Carthage Area Rescue Squad. It was certainly 1961, but, for the next five years it was a very much up and down operation, usually more “down” than “up”. The first official act of being “on duty” was in August of ’61 when the squad stood by at a large softball tournament at the Carthage Athletic Field. About that time the unit purchased a used bread van from Durkee’s Bakery for $ 125 and proceeded to paint it yellow and equip it for emergency service. It was piece number two, of a long litany of vehicles that would go on the serve proudly with the CARS logo. It joined a used funeral hearse that had already been adapted to squad use.
Newspapers of the time reported on various fund raisers. There was discussion of renting the former W.T. Grant building in the 300 block of State Street for training purposes and possible holding “Bingo” games. Meetings were being held at the Carthage Fire Department building on South Mechanic Street. The paid drivers at Carthage Fire Headquarters fielded phone calls for rescue squad service.
In December 1961, a lease was signed with a West Carthage service station to house squad vehicles on the lower level. The problem was it was below grade storage, getting up to street level after snow fell was very difficult. Previously, vehicles were kept for a time at the service station in the 400 block of State Street, but they had to be parked outside in the snow during the daily operation of the garage.
In the fall of 1961 a successful lost hunter training exercise was held on the Texas Road in the Town of Wilna. The use of the newly available Citizens Band radios was touted as being very advantageous in the training event. Citizen’s Band radios had a down side, the entire community knew what was happening!
At inception I believe that the perceived mission of the CARS was a bit broader that we now find. “Rescue” figured heavily in that pioneering concept. Ambulances transported sick and injured, fire departments put out fires, no agency was equipped to fill that void between; finding the loss; bringing injured off cliffs; and removal of patients from automobile accidents. In the next decade the fire service assumed most the rescue duty, CARS morphed into an ambulance service.
In early 1963 a fund raiser was held at the Strand Theater, by showing a benefit movie, “to help the rescue squad to become active again”, clearly difficult times staying in motion in those early years.
Since all three funeral homes operated ambulance service in those early days, and most calls for an ambulance came from physicians and police agencies, it was difficult for the squad to get a call. By monitoring the CB radio channels on week-ends, when there was a greater number of Saturday night accidents, due to differing alcohol consumption rules, the squad could occasionally grab a call before the private services showed up. Carthage had six physicians in those days, all of whom made house-calls, the need for ambulance service was much less than it is now. Literally, there was no, “raison de entree”; no reason to exist.
Existing unwritten arrangements provided that if a certain physician was called, it followed that a certain ambulance service was alerted and the injured were taken to the co-operating pair’s favorite hospital. The old, “one hand washes the other” deal. The squad was the “new kid on the block”. Tough to make a dent in something that had been working well for forty years.
A December 22, 1966 newspaper announcement would spark a change that made the rescue squad the fully operation agency it is today. The rescue squad was going to be “re-activated”, (again), to provide continual and uninterrupted ambulance service to the community when the funeral directors ended ambulance service nine days later! Not a lot of time to pull things together. It was to be a stop-gap arrangement until further arrangement could be worked out. Throw Christmas and New Year’s Holidays into those nine days made for some jumping!
All three funeral homes had wanted to get out of the ambulance service for years, but, because of competitive advantage, none would quit unless they all quit. New York State made it happen.
Because of Federal highway monies, ambulance service was to be regulated. No more hearse/ambulance combination vehicles, ambulance had to be ambulances, training would be required. No more using mortuary stretchers for living patients. No more having patients having to wait for the conclusion of a funeral service, before the multi-purpose vehicle could transform itself from hearse to ambulance, and “Oh, don’t forget to sweep the flowers out, before you respond!”
The two smaller volume funeral directors both sold there hearse to the squad, it was cheaper to rent a hearse for a funeral service than own one. One, I think was a silver 1960 combination Cadillac unit already set up for ambulance service with removable rollers and pop-up seats in the rear. The other was a 1958 black straight hearse with a kitchen chair with shorted legs, bouncing around in the bag for the attendant. You held onto the cot with one hand and the wall with the other!
The rescue squad took over all medical transportation services at midnight on New Year’s Eve, January 1st, 1967. Nothing happened! For four days nothing happened, on Wednesday, the squad received four calls within a 24 hour period. Off and going, and growing!
The Town of Wilna Highway department Barn on West End Avenue became home of CARS as it started it escalation to become a primer provider of medical services transportation in the area. Vehicles were starting to become the blue and white color that is so familiar to us now.
Changes were coming in lots of areas, in May of 1969 CARS helped move the patients from Sligar’s Nursing Home at 812 State State, site of the former Carthage Area Hospital, also previously owned by the Sligars’ to a new state-of-the-art nursing facility on West Street, adjacent to the already operating Carthage Area Hospital, the Greenbriar Nursing Home. After nearly half a century the proud old Strickland mansion, would give up the mantle of medical care and revert to private residency
The new Carthage Area Hospital held the base transmitter for two-way communications with both rescue squad ambulances having transceivers. Incoming calls were routinely handled by the hospital switchboard, and passed along to the squad. The advantage was that the hospital’s emergency room, could get an advance notice of pending problems.
If one could pick a date and say the Carthage Area Rescue Squad had arrived it would arguably be November 1, 1968. January 1, 1967 was important, the first day of full-time operation, however that was a pieced-together operation just finding it’s way into the world of emergency medical service. 11/1/1968, after an open house during the afternoon, that Friday evening, a dedication ceremony was conducted at the new squad headquarters. A new purposely designed and constructed building situated immediately behind the hospital, next to the nursing home, raised it’s doors. On premise eating and sleeping quarters allowed the members to be ever vigilant.
With local clergy officiating, and Joseph P. Joynt, as President of the squad, Dr. Arnold J. Lee, Twin Villages Heath Officer, and long-time community physician was honored for his service to the squad.
A new squad building now stands on Riverside Drive extension. This era, of which I speak, of service to the community has passed away, along with many of the dedicated volunteers, who manned the squad during these formative years. I have tried hard not to mention names in this narrative for fear of omitting folks who had worked hard in the daily buzz of doing business, but, perhaps didn’t find their names into the “Carthage Republican Tribune” and the “Watertown Times” because they may not have held an office, but, no less necessary. Their names are memorialized in all of the old newspaper clippings I have read through, in writing the account, by this statement: “The injured were removed from the scene by the efforts of The Carthage Area Rescue Squad.” A fitting memorial for anyone.
7 January 2019 The recollections from Fr. Samuel P. Lundy+