By Clark Judge
(October 23, 2024) — For the first time in six years, the Killingworth Ambulance Association has broken with history. It answered fewer calls from October, 2023 through September, 2024 than each of the previous two years. No one is sure why, but records at the KAA’s annual dinner on October 20, 2024 revealed a reversal in annual responses that had been climbing since 2018.
However, there’s a catch: Nothing changed with those answering the calls. There, history remained intact.
For the fourth consecutive year, it was Groundhog Day for KAA president Dan O’Sullivan, honored again as the leading responder. This time he accumulated 238, two shy of his 240 the previous year and 46 percent of the 518 the volunteer service answered in 2023-24. He also set the KAA record for individual responses with 283 in 2021-22.
“I’m retired and have a lot of other stuff going on,” explained O’Sullivan, who with wife Jan, was recognized as Killingworth’s Co-Citizens of the Year in 2023, “but I make this a high priority with the things I do.”
Apparently. Honoring him annually has become so routine that, when asked to characterize O’Sullivan’s run of first-place finishes, the KAA’s chief of service, Mike Haaga, was speechless. He shook his head and threw up his hands before giving up.
“What can I say?” he finally answered. “Thank you.”
But thanks on Sunday extended beyond O’Sullivan.
James Fretz (photo above, left, with Lisa Barbour and Dan O’Sullivan) was cited for finishing second in responses with 191, and nothing new there, either. It’s the fourth consecutive year he’s been the runner-up to O’Sullivan. Lisa Barbour, who last year tied for third, was third again, this time answering 143 calls, while Mary Robbenhaar-Fretz was fourth.
“Lisa Barbour’s accomplishment is particularly amazing,” O’Sullivan said, “given that she does it while working full-time (for the town of Clinton).”
If those names sound familiar, they should. All four have been the top KAA responders each of the past three years and are members of the KAA’s board of directors.
What’s not familiar is the decline in KAA calls. Until the past fiscal year, they accelerated annually from 2018 when the figure was 277 to last year when it was a record 581, a leap of 109 percent. But over the past 12 months, the number dropped to 518, its lowest since 2021 when it was 459.
The reason? No one’s certain.
“They went up after COVID, and they stayed high for a while,” said Haaga, “but they’re moving back to where I think they should be. With COVID and after COVID, people were very concerned, for instance, about sneezing. They didn’t know what that meant. But now it’s starting to slow back down, so that when they now sneeze, they say, ‘Okay, I have a cold.’ “
Haaga should know. He and wife Marguerite have been EMTs in Killingworth since 1997 and taught annual EMT and CPR classes here since 2000. In recognition of their service, they were honored Sunday night with a proclamation from the Killingworth’s Board of Selectmen, with First Selectman Eric Couture making the presentation.
Introducing the Haagas, O’Sullivan said he “couldn’t imagine” where the KAA would be without them. Not only are both board members; they trained 18 of the 20 current EMTs, as well as dozens of others who have since retired from active duty.
Photo by Lisa Anderson
