Local rescue squad asks Princeton Mayor and Council to buy ambulances

An ambulance can wear out faster when calls keep rising. The local rescue squad told Princeton Mayor and Council it answered 3,573 calls in 2025, with an average response time of 5.6 minutes. Its executive director said the squad has provided emergency medical response for 87 years and now relies more on career staff as volunteer recruitment gets harder.

Operating expenses have climbed from $1.5 million to nearly $3 million over a decade, the executive director said. The squad receives $125,000 a year in municipal operating support, along with donations and other contributions, but still faces a structural deficit. Billing offers limited relief: Medicare and Medicaid account for 38% of transports and pay fixed rates, while the squad wrote off $180,000 in uncollectible balances last year. The director said a recent rate increase takes 60–90 days to affect collections.

The squad asked Princeton Mayor and Council to buy ambulances on its existing replacement schedule, using a state provision separate from the operating-support cap. The municipality would hold title initially, and resale proceeds would return to taxpayers; staffing, dispatch, insurance and maintenance would remain the squad’s responsibility. The director estimated vehicle support at $200,000–$250,000 a year across the replacement cycle, with the first municipal outlay in 2028. Members of Princeton Mayor and Council asked about finances and funding sources, then said they would review the request and respond in the near future.

Princeton Historic Preservation Commission approved work on a circa 1930 house in a historic district, with conditions on its porch columns and roof color. The proposal includes replacing aluminum siding with poly-ash siding, repairing the porch foundation and framing, and replacing the porch decking, gutters and downspouts. The existing full-width porch would remain.

Commission staff found the replacement siding visually compatible with the wood clapboard the house likely once had. Staff also said the proposed siding and trim colors suit its early 20th-century design. Their main concern was the proposed switch from a gray tin porch roof to black standing-seam metal, a change visible from the street.

Staff pointed to a 1918 map showing metal or tin porch roofs along the block, raising the possibility that this roof is original. Princeton Historic Preservation Commission approved the application on the condition that the applicant explore wood columns instead of the proposed replacement columns and use a more compatible slate-gray roof color. Those conditions address two details visible from the street while allowing the restoration to proceed.