The Mathews Volunteer Rescue Squad will be asking the county to increase its funding of the organization this year by $40,000.

The squad’s board chairman Ron Lambert and treasurer Dave Burns explained recently that, while MVRS has historically relied on volunteers from the community, a shortage of volunteers with the proper certification has resulted in the squad having to pay personnel to cover some shifts.

Increasingly rigorous training requirements make it hard for volunteers to invest the time in classes that enable them to meet the minimum standards for providing medical care on an ambulance, they said.

According to state law, a basic life support ambulance must have at least an EMT-Basic as the attendant in charge, while an advanced life support ambulance requires an EMT-Intermediate or EMT-Paramedic. The basic EMT course takes 160 hours of classroom, clinical rotation and evaluation time. More than 400 hours are required for EMT-I certification, and it takes 800-pl...