The Demise of St. John's

"Sorry, We Are Closed."

For the residents of Keasbey and Fords, and most notably the seniors living in Olsen Towers on New Brunswick Avenue in Fords, seeing that announcement on the St. John’s First Aid Squad marquee must be disheartening, to say the least. 

According to records, St. John’s First Aid Squad was established and incorporated in New Jersey in 1943.  Since that time, they saved countless lives and brought comfort to many people.

So why has this noble institution closed its doors?  They had no choice because in November 2009, the Township Council, at the behest of the McCormac Administration, unanimously voted in favor of an ordinance involving redistricting the Fords and Keasbey first aid districts. All the calls instead would go to the Woodbridge squad. The ordinance took effect on January 1, 2010.

Shortly after closing St. John’s, the McCormac Administration turned its attention to closing the Avenel Colonia First Aid Squad.  That closing, however, was short lived. Fortunately, through the power of a petition, the doors Mayor John McCormac boasted would never open again did so on May 1, 2011.  McCormac was there for the re-opening but maintained a low profile.

McCormac had also planned to establish a Port Reading-based EMS operation which would have been run by the Woodbridge Police Department. His administration applied to the state for an EMS license in September 2010; apparently, that didn't go very well, either.

The members of St. John’s have endeavored to keep the squad viable for the safety and welfare of the community they and their forerunners served for over 65 years. They even undertook very recent talks with the McCormac administration to get the service reestablished, which Town Council President Jim Carroll tacitly acknowledged during a recent town council meeting.  Reportedly, those talks, which were lead from the administration’s side by township Business Adminstrator Robert Landolfi were so onerous that the St. John’s negotiators could not acquiesce to the administration’s demands.

So has the McCormac administration succeed in closing the doors of St. John’s forever?  Short of a huge public outcry, petition or initiative, it would seem so.

Certainly, the residents of Fords, Keasbey, and the entire township can express their opinions on these political shenanigans by casting a vote in November to remove these politicians from office. 

How ironic would it be if the vote the mayor and his cohorts orchestrated in November 2009 to ruin St. John’s came back to thwart his political ambitions two years later!