Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps has a full complement of line officers and board members in place.
The corps officers are elected by the membership but their positions are not official until they are appointed by RVAC’s board of directors. The appointments to all positions were not finalized until this month.
Chief Bill Wilkinson, Assistant Chief Rod Richardson, Capt. Rachael Morello, Capt. Amanda Zilnicki and Lt. Chris Fleming, have been joined by lieutenants Rosemary Kelly, Corinne Kindya and Sue Schleef.
Wilkinson became RVAC’s new chief in January, filling a position that had been vacant for about five months following the suspension of ex-chief Joseph Oliver for alleged violation of RVAC rules.
Together the officers comprise the operations board of the corps, which is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the organization.
RVAC currently has 110 members but only about 75 are active, Wilkinson said. He’d like corps membership — active membership — to be at least 150.
The ambulance corps answered 3,504 calls in 2014, Wilkinson said. In its first year of operation (1978), the corps ran 700 calls, according to town records.
There’s a lot of turnover in new members, Wilkinson noted.
“If people make it five years, they’re here for life,” the chief said. “But making five years is rough.”
RVAC is a not-for-profit corporation that provides emergency medical services to the Riverhead ambulance district under contract with the Town of Riverhead. The corporation is run by a board of directors, members of the corps of at least five years standing, who are elected by the members of the organization. The five-member board, in turn, elects its officers.
The board is responsible for managing the corps’ business and finances.
Members of the board for 2015 are: Kimberly Pokorny, president; Robert Bork, vice president; Keith Lewin, Chris McCarthy and Ronald Rowe.
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