By Susan E. Campbell
Imagine calling for an ambulance and wondering when it will arrive, if at all. Yet that was the reality for first response some 50 years ago.
“Each township had different response territories, and it could take a long time for an ambulance to get from one end of a territory to another,” said William Smith, a recently retired career firefighter and chief of operations for Community Emergency Corps based in Ballston Spa.
Community Emergency Corps is a nonprofit organization Smith has been a member of since 1998. Founded in 1966 by a group of concerned citizens, it provides emergency transport for the Village of Ballston Spa, Milton, the northern part of Ballston, and Middle Grove, an abutting section of Greenfield.