In role reversal, Riverhead ambulance calls on community: ‘Help us grow’

Fundraising for a new headquarters for the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps has topped $6 million and that means there’s a real chance that the new facility can be built and equipped without tax payer dollars.

With $6.4 million raised, thanks in large measure to generous support from wealthy donors making significant contributions, the ambulance corps is asking the rest of the community for help to reach its goal: raising enough money to cover the cost of construction and equipment without raising property taxes.

A mailer soliciting support for the project recently went out to all residents and RVAC is hoping community response will take the project over the finish line.  

Information about RVAC’s ongoing “Help Us Grow” campaign is also available at the ambulance company’s website. Donations can also be made through a secure online portal.

“Community support has been amazing,”  RVAC President Garrett Lake said. 

“If the amount we need to borrow to cover the cost is small enough, we can cover it with ambulance billing revenues and regular annual donations,” he said. “That’s a great feeling,” Lake said, “because then the new facility won’t be a burden on our taxpayers.”

The ambulance billing program, begun on a limited basis in 2017 (for MVA transports only) and expanded to all calls in 2023, produces a steady stream of insurance revenues for ambulance services. 

Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps., founded in 1978, is a 501(c)(c) nonprofit that provides emergency medical services to the Riverhead Ambulance District, which takes in most of the town’s territory. The district, governed by the Town Board, contracts with RVAC for services. The district owns the ambulance headquarters, which it built in 1988-89, and relies on property tax revenues to pay for repairs and maintenance of the headquarters. The district also provides and repairs ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

RVAC long ago outgrew its existing Osborn Avenue headquarters. Population growth,  an aging population,  large-scale commercial development and tourism have caused the number of calls RVAC responds to annually to  skyrocket  more than 300% since 1989 — from 1,200 that year to nearly 6,000 in 2025. The current cramped and aging headquarters isn’t large enough to accommodate the ambulances and emergency vehicles RVAC needs to serve the district. 

The new 16,600-square-foot headquarters, to be built on the same site as the existing facility, will provide adequate facilities for RVAC’s staff of 150 professionals — 110 of which are volunteers — its emergency vehicles, equipment and supplies. It will have six bays deep enough to hold two ambulances each, and a three-story building space for response activities, secure medicine and equipment storage, a decontamination room, training and meeting rooms, bunk rooms, an area where members on duty can read or watch TV while on standby, and a larger kitchen/dining area. 

The final cost of the facility isn’t known yet: the Town of Riverhead has issued a request for proposals for a construction manager for the project and will soon be issuing bid requests. The bids it receives will ultimately determine the actual project cost. 

The original estimate was about $9 million, “but that was over a year ago,” said Keith Lewin, a longtime RVAC volunteer and current member of its board of directors. “

“We won’t know the exact number until we get the bid responses,” Lewin said. 

In the end, he said, the less the ambulance district must borrow for construction costs, the less it will have to rely on tax payer dollars for debt service and necessary medical equipment.

Council Member Ken Rothwell, the Town Board’s liaison to RVAC, described the effort as a win-win for the community and its taxpayers. 

“We are looking at building this new RVAC facility, which is 20 years in the waiting, at no taxpayer expense,” Rothwell said.  “It’s an incredible achievement.” He thanked Lake and the fundraising committee for “amazing” work. “It’s very exciting.”